The Singles Jukebox

I think we might have reviewed her even more than The-Dream now…

[Video][Website]
[6.09]

Matt Cibula: I am SICK AND TIRED of giving excellent grades to skillful beautiful songs like this; wish I could get my snark on every once in a while but R&B is killin’ everything else right now. Not much here except craft, but that is fine because Hilson’s variations on her theme are deft and daft and sexy enough for me.
[8]

Pete Baran: It’s certainly a slow dance. But I think it would probably be better called “nipping to the bar”, “just popping off to the loo” or “let’s beat the rush and get the night bus”.
[1]

Hillary Brown: She does realize that the stop-and-go rhythm makes this impossible actually to dance to, unless you’re doing a kind of pause-and-pose thing?
[5]

Martin Kavka: There are moments here when Hilson sounds exactly like Prince, although this doesn’t hold a candle to “International Lover.”
[4]

Michaelangelo Matos: This song knows the way to my heart, which is to sound a whole hell of a lot like Prince. The synths squiggle like a cross between Controversy and “Joker“, the vocals coo and harmonize like “I Wish U Heaven,” the whole thing is alert as well as soft and wet.
[8]

Al Shipley: So far I’ve been pretty unimpressed with Timberlake’s attempts at becoming a writer/producer for other artists, but this is so sumptuous and Princely that it almost sounds like it belongs on the Electrik Red album.
[7]

Ian Mathers: Hilson continues to be weirdly effective; that is, effective in that I seem to like most of her songs, but weirdly in that I still couldn’t pick her out of the crowd. If this came up at Name That Tune I’d probably guess Ciara. And oddly enough some bits of “Slow Dance” remind me a bit of Milosh with a more pronounced beat. Which means you can’t actually slow dance to this, but between the sway of the music and the sentiment of the lyrics, I’d imagine you could work up a pretty fierce slow burn.
[7]

Jordan Sargent: It would’ve been really easy to convince me that this was Ciara’s fifth or sixth attempt at rewriting “Promise”, but hey, you could choose a worse song to rewrite, right? The percolating keyboards, empty spaces and breathless coos are all right where they should be, but Hilson can’t really sell sex, which is why “Slow Dance” would be best at one in a cafeteria with hawk-eyed chaperones for fifth-graders.
[6]

Tal Rosenberg: Strongly reminiscent of slow jams on Ginuwine’s first album, and “Until the End of Time” on Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds. The Timberlake similarity makes sense, since he is a co-writer here, but you can’t hear him anywhere, which I can only attribute to Hilson’s talent as a performer more than a vocalist (she’s only ok, y’know?). The keyboard’s warped zap and the cushy slam drums are all goo and glamor. And I even like that little keyboard “ping ping ping”. The beatbox breakdown is a clear “What About Us” rip, and this is nowhere near that, which is a 9.5. But I definitely want to check out the rest of the album, even though this is way more of a bump ‘n’ grind than a slow dance (not a bad thing).
[7]

Dave Moore: The swishy synths and slick harmony breaks keep things aloft as the song stumbles around for the kitchen sink — a goofy little slow jam that never quite adds up to anything sexy but has an offhand charm.
[7]

Kat Stevens: Taken in context of its parent album, “Slow Dance” is a much needed half-time breather after the club bangers and numerous guest spots of the first half. Keri passes round the neatly sliced orange segments and prepares herself to swap ends – this is the turning point where she switches from confident, independent flirting to uncontrolled emotion and intense paranoia. But it seems that looking at the video, it’s actually just where she has a quick wank before going out clubbing with her mates.
[7]