Prepping the world for another run of grumble-powered superhits…

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[5.00]

Alfred Soto: You know the economy was in recession last spring when Timbo replaces Nelly Furtado with a third-tier ringer and the engineer doesn’t notice.
[2]

Tal Rosenberg: Timbaland’s getting a better grasp on the satellite pop that he tried out on his last album, but he’s still not there yet. The stitching is beautiful, but needs more detail. And the ghoulish, rubbery chorus is great, but what Timbo needs is more oddness, not less.
[6]

Erick Bieritz: The chorus of this song is “When the cats come out the bats come out to play” in a twisted warble, a funhouse patois, Halloween autotune. Timbaland can make a singer as easily as he can score, but the morning after is more complicated when recovering from a vampiric attack rather than a one-night stand.
[9]

Ian Mathers: At first I found the little gulping lunges he does with his voice there kind of annoying, but it’s grown on me — it does make a pretty decent hook. “Morning After Dark” feels a bit overstuffed, and neither Timbo nor SoShy say much of anything compelling, but I wouldn’t switch stations if this came on the radio.
[6]

Renato Pagnani: I understand that Auto-Tune is often employed to an artistic end, to heighten a sense of despair and desolation or as a general aesthetic choice, giving vocals an icy, digital sheen. Or like Kanye once said, and I’m paraphrasing here: because it sounds fucking cool. Here it sounds like Timbaland just wants to be Andre the Giant. A [1] if Timbo didn’t sound like he was completely aware this was nothing but contrived play for Billboard’s peak. The thing is, just a few years ago that would’ve also been something good.
[2]

Matt Cibula: Timbaland is turning into the Wooderson of hip-hop producers, but I like Wooderson and I enjoy standing up for Pharrell Williams too, when he deserves it. This song is pretty boring though.
[3]

Anthony Miccio: His quivers on the chorus suggest Timbaland would make a glorious, beatwise Rick James if he’d just cultivate a seductive personality. Like so much of his recent work, this gets by on percolation. I just wish he’d hire someone like Sean Tillman to juice up his Thomas Crown shtick and fire whoever he’s paying to do it now.
[7]

Chuck Eddy: She’s a colder fish trying to be emotional than he is trying to be deadpan. Either way, the only reasons to listen are the percolating but way too intermittent electrobeats, and that he says “Auf Weidersehen” at the start — though it would’ve made more sense if he’d saved it until the end.
[5]

Alex Macpherson: Or, I could just listen to “The Way I Are” or “Scream” or “Return The Favor” instead.
[5]