Must resist urge… to purchase Beats™ brand products… at my local consumer electronics store…
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[5.33]
Alfred Soto: Exquisite without labor, Ambrosius occasionally at her slackest sounds etherized by passion. On paper Dre’s presence administers the right shocks and laughs, and it’s nice to hear from the male responsible for her orgasmic feints, but the Sade interpolation, pizzicatos, and horns do too much filler work. “Stronger,” Marsha, not “Longer.”
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: Well, this is an interesting assemblage of elements: a cover of Sade’s “Love Is Stronger Than Pride” set to an iconic sample from Jeru the Damaja’s “Come Clean,” sung by Marsha Ambrosius, and with a guest verse by none other than Dr. Dre. Unfortunately, it all kind of feels like a soufflé that hasn’t quite set. The Jeru sample doesn’t actually add anything to the song; Dre’s verse is completely limp (dude, just quit rapping — at this point you’re like Gramps grabbing the mic at an 8 year old’s birthday party); and while Ambrosius of course sings it all beautifully, I just don’t get the point, because she didn’t do anything particularly notable with it. I want to like this much, much more than I actually do, but it doesn’t deserve any better.
[5]
Hazel Robinson: This is blissfully… I don’t wanna say “retro” because I’m talking about the late 90s but you know, that. And it’s got some really strong emotional shit going on, for about the first two minutes — unfortunately, it doesn’t capitalise on either of these aspects enough to actually get a hook in, somehow, and the end peters out completely.
[6]
Anthony Easton: The introduction is pure atmospheric gorgeousness, like fireflies at dusk. The rest I can take or leave.
[4]
Scott Mildenhall: So near but yet so far, this hints at something exquisite. The heavenly layering over darkness of “I’m Not In Love”, the ambient bliss of “Lovin’ You” — it’s almost a diurnal counterpoint to the warm summer nights of “Human Nature”. It just doesn’t sound finished. Dre almost leaves the opening two minutes a writeoff, needlessly trampling all over the atmosphere, while Ambrosius is sometimes too low in the mix, blending with it to a degree that the song as a whole would have transcended in replicating.
[5]
Brad Shoup: On the scale of ridiculous things an obscenely rich guy could throw money at, a Marsha Ambrosius single is somewhere between the Freedom Partners Action Fund and a yacht helipad. Not that there aren’t signs of thriftiness — Dre’s rhymes arrived in a doggy bag labeled “The Recipe”, and the intro was scavenged from the Soft Bulletin floor. Around all that is Ambrosius, singing like the fever broke over a broken-rhythm trip-hop track.
[7]