Consensus blown hither and yon.
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[5.67]
Anthony Easton: I vastly underrated “Pontoon,” so I risk vastly overrating this. But the hand-claps, whistled introduction, the slow bit that suggests genuine tragedy, the clever extension of metaphors (swing as hitting/swing as another lover) — it’s not Sally Timms “This House is a House of Trouble,” and of course it is not that bitchy, and the batting back and forth become singular, but the references are there.
[8]
Alfred Soto: A few months after Carrie Underwood’s superior “Blown Away,” we get this staid attempt at metaphorical portent. Nothing in the voices suggest the power of lifting houses and shakin’ em all around, and the varnished mix gives the instruments the wind power of an electric dashboard fan.
[4]
Ian Mathers: There should be some kind of penalty for putting lines like “I’m a tornado, looking for a soul to take” into such an anodyne tune. Shouldn’t there be at least some verve or spark or something, somewhere here?
[2]
Brad Shoup: Someone turned these guys up to Fleetwood Max. And scuzzed up their bass.
[7]
Iain Mew: When I mistakenly thought that “make sure you’re never found” was a command that the target should get away from unknown pursuers, the tension and threat worked much better. It doesn’t work as well now I realise that it’s just one more thing on a list of what the singer wants to do, backed up by a strut that isn’t quite tough enough for the purpose.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Drifting down a lazy river past the point works fine for pontoons; tornadoes, not so much.
[6]
Alex Ostroff: ‘Tornado’ has similar flaws to yesterday’s Olly Murs track: lots of signifying, but little sound or fury. If you don’t want your revenge songs to come off as play-acting, you need conviction — maybe not enough to lift a house off the ground, but more than Little Big Town has on display here.
[4]
Will Adams: Shawn Colvin’s A Few Small Repairs was one of the first albums I truly got to know. “Tornado” and its saloon stomp reminded me immediately of “Get Out of This House,” where Colvin’s anger is most palpable. Like “Get Out of This House,” Karen Fairchild’s reserved performance makes her arrows all the more effective. I’m not quite sure who wears the scorn best; I may call it a draw, though the interesting synth buzzes on “Tornado” tip the scales in its favor.
[7]
W.B. Swygart: Little Big Anni-Frid is not Miranda Lambert. Not being Miranda Lambert is not actually a crime, though. “Tornado” is an odd little creature; lyrics suggest straightforward arsekicker, but the lines are greyer. She’s got a gun, but there’s no guarantee she knows how to use it. A reckoning approaches, and whatever happens, she knows it’s going to end badly. The catharsis is so fleeting that it’s pretty much gone by the time verse three rolls into sight. Dunno if they meant it this way (“Little White Church” suggests possibly not), but there’s a compelling bleakness at work – the sound of Emily Thorne digging the second grave, perhaps.
[8]