“When Love Takes Over” really was only a year ago…
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[6.00]
Katherine St Asaph: If this doesn’t obliterate Kelly Rowland’s reputation as a beta singer, I don’t know what will. She found a wonderful, boulder-dense alto at some point — it certainly wasn’t around much for Destiny’s Child or her early solo work — and uses it to crush everything in sight, even pulling off “I command you to dance.” Can we wipe Fergie from David Guetta’s brain and get more of this?
[9]
Alfred Soto: A foot soldier more like. Lead by example, please: dump the Auto-tune and generic thump-thump beats.
[3]
Martin Skidmore: She’s never quite cracked it as a solo star, but I really like her singing, so I’m a bit disappointed in the verses here, which are dull, but she sings the chorus with enough uplifting force that, with the modish and strong production, maybe this will change things. Or maybe not.
[7]
Pete Baran: It could be a Cascada track, but Cascada would never sing it this way, and good for her. To the world Beyonce may have won the war, but I’d rather listen to a Kelly Greatest Hits than a Beyonce one.
[7]
John Seroff: Destiny’s least interesting Child tries on Rihanna’s rhinestones and flashes enough sparklemotion to warrant closer attention in the future. Rowland certainly doesn’t elevate “Commander” but Guetta’s C-is-for-cookie-cutter house isn’t doing her any favors. Get her on a cut with Polow and let’s meet back here to reassess.
[6]
Mark Sinker: A good time to be reminded of another long-lost, lovely summer — 2002, and P!nk’s “Party” and Puretone’s “Bass” — by a PRIOR GODDESS. Kelly powers herself through a well-accoutred stretch of diva-trance bosh, and, well, I would happily reorder all of art to demonstrate how it derived from any particle of Destiny’s Child, so this really only drops points for ending too soon.
[8]
Iain Mew: I guess this does fine in its opening set up of Kelly as mindless drone following the unstoppable urge to dance, but the atmosphere is so joyless and rote that I never get out of it any reason to want to do likewise. Without that wish to follow her commands, it just gets increasingly suffocating and overbearing as it goes on in one-note fashion.
[2]
Chuck Eddy: I realize the vapid roteness of the sentiments here (bragging about having a driver you can boss around? And not doing it in a way that seems self-deprecating, like say Joe Walsh in “Life’s Been Good”? Give me a break) just means Rowland is doing what her genre and audience now demand, but that doesn’t make them any less vapid or rote. Also get the idea she wants to be Beyoncé, a goal way beyond my comprehension. Has energy, I guess. But Electric Six’s “Dance Commander” had more.
[5]
Ian Mathers: There’s a certain joylessness to this that kind of fits the whole forced happiness theme of the song (she commands you to dance! She provides the answer!), but gosh, aren’t David Guetta’s synths getting awfully predictable? I’d actually love to see Rowland tackling this with a different producer; think less Beyonce, more Darkseid.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: I can’t quite tell whether this is supposed to be an R&B track with a house production or a house track with an R&B vocalist. Either way, it’s efficient and insistent, both physically and emotionally, without ever making itself fully necessary.
[7]