What seems to be the “Problem,” officer?
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[4.67]
Micha Cavaseno: Like Natasha Bedingfield before her, this girl seems on her way to deliver slightly cozy and hip-poppy light-assed “Hang In There!” posters given sonic flesh.
[2]
Katherine St Asaph: Works less as a song than as a storyboard of a pop song in 2015: Natasha Bedingfield, Alicia Keys on “Un-Thinkable,” the “Problem” chorus, dusty trip-hop loops, DJ Mustard, “see guys she can really SING!” runs, girl-groupish hidden pain you’ve got to root around in the showcase for. All pop is reducible to these pitches, but the best pop bursts with personality anyway. “Nobody Love” just bursts with positioning.
[5]
Iain Mew: The sun bright bounce is very “These Words” which is never a bad thing to me. Tori Kelly can’t do overwhelming as perfectly as Natasha Bedingfield, unsurprisingly, and sounds a bit strained when she approaches, but the “Problem”-style drop down for the chorus gets around that satisfyingly.
[7]
Andy Hutchins: Stealing from the wrong Natasha Bedingfield song is forgivable (this is the right one), especially given Kelly’s big ol’ voice, but relying on her ability to make a quiet hook work in a strange loud-soft-loud construction is less so. The obvious comparison, structurally, is “Problem,” but that had Big Sean MYSTERY WHISPERERing, and a better (read: more obnoxious) horn section, and ~star power~. And “Problem” was a problem; this is unlikely to be more than an inconvenience, both because it’s less, well, problematic (for lack of Amazonian Aussies paraphrasing Jay-Z, the charts are lost and souls are kept) and because its blushes come from swooning shyness, not contrived shame.
[6]
Will Adams: “Problem” without its problem (the Igloo), but now with even more disregard for creating any sort of sonic cohesion. Call it even?
[4]
Alfred Soto: Looking for the new thing with the old verities (horns, finger snaps, girl group harmonics) is hard.
[4]