Her continue-to-fight song…
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[3.88]
Thomas Inskeep: Simon Cowell should get on the horn to Platten’s publisher now, because this bullshit-hokum-inspirational-twaddle is the stuff from which X Factor winner’s singles are made. Unsurprising to learn that the lead dork from fun. helped write this, too. It’s got the same faux-anthemic structure as Katy Perry’s “Roar,” and makes my stomach curdle just as much.
[1]
Sonia Yang: Beyoncé’s “Halo” done in the style of Jordin Sparks’ “Battlefield,” but with less vocal acrobatics. “Stand By You” echoes the sentiment of Platten’s previous single “Fight Song” but in a relationship context. These are all good evocations, but ultimately the song doesn’t make the impact it intended to.
[6]
Will Adams: You guessed right, it has gently swung stadium drums and a backing choir. With “Fight Song” and now “Stand By You,” Rachel Plattitudes sounds like she’s trying to methodically assemble an army one inspiring song at a time. I doubt the turnout will be very big, but think of all the great Ford commercials we’ll get along the way!
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: As I settle into premature decrepitude I continue to love that subset of populist but not trendy enough to be to demographics-drunk music critic taste — the sort beloved of the less-celebrated teenage girls, and the women they become. If Adele is their priestess, Rachel Platten is their foot soldier in the high school trenches. The voice is thin (yet, according to my sister in casting, still inspires a hundred bad vocal auditions), the lyric is simultaneously bombastic and unmoving, and the music is overinflated in at least three places, More charitably: the voice is relatable; the lyric suits a teen milieu that does often feel like walking through hell, alone; and I’m not so stuffy I can’t appreciate the exact midpoint of “Unwell” and “Roar.”
[6]
Alfred Soto: With the drums booming like caravels signaling through fog, Rachel Patten sings of the eternal verities. In a marketplace that honors such things “Even if you can’t find heaven” sounds blasphemous enough, although this is the same singer whose “Fight Song” honored careerism for its own sake.
[3]
Scott Mildenhall: Rachel Platten’s medium-sized voice was unusually suitable for “Internal Rhyme Song”, because rather than sounding innately impervious, as some would-be empowerers have done,she really did seem like an ordinary person steeling themselves. Now she’s trying to inspire confidence through direct reassurance, though, the effect is reversed. This is where superhuman conviction could come in. Either that, or a dose of inspiration in the music – it’s a template with good reason, but that’s cold comfort.
[5]
Anthony Easton: The wing metaphor is so complicated and clumsy, and her walking through hell with me would just make things even worse. Also, I know why my heart beats, and she should read more Rorty before trying to define truth. Also, the founding beat of this is worse than the lyrics.
[1]
Brad Shoup: It sounds like its own garage remix, which is something. It’s not that Platten’s eager to entertain — which, again, I generally find winning — it’s that she’s here to overwhelm, and the arrangement (the live-drummer boom-bap, the crotchet piano, the insectoid music box, the gospel piffle) is a ruthless perfect-fifth column to this end. The tempo is hectic because pop radio, I guess; imagining all the ways this song can go off the rails is a fair chunk of the fun.
[6]