Meanwhile, Anthony thinks this is sorta country…

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[4.50]

Anthony Easton: Change the instrumentation up, and this could be something for the latest starlet out of Nashville. I don’t know if this says more about the nature of Avril, pop nostalgia, or the direction that Nashville is going. 
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Do you ever feel that 2010s P!nk is less than perfect? “Wish You Were Here” is pretty-pretty, but please.
[3]

Jer Fairall: Our shrillest pop star gets her low-key Alanis on with a ballad that’s actually halfway graceful and, better yet, finds no occasion for her to do that horrible shrieking thing that she seems to think signifies emotion. Mostly, though, I’m stunned by the sheer perversity of this being the second song by a Canadian female pop star this year to have a bit that reminds me of T’Pau’s “Heart and Soul.”  
[5]

Hazel Robinson: If the rest of this song was even a fraction as good as the piano breakdown in the middle eight, I would be in some sort of fit of joy right now. Also, blimes love — learn some new expletives.
[6]

Brad Shoup: In the taxonomy of mild profanity, “Wish You Were Here” falls fairly close to “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover,” its spiritual antecedent and vocal inferior. Unpolished drum programming and sloppy slant rhyme give this one the feel of a demo. So does the undercooked bridge, which references the title of the first album so we can all remember those halcyon days when punk-rock messageboards were going all threat-or-menace on her and an Avril ballad was her fumbling toward maturity, not a college fund for Shellback’s kids.
[3]

Jonathan Bradley: I have a fondness for Avril power ballads, but “Wish You Were Here” is significantly lacking in power. She still has that ability to stretch “everywhere” out into five or six syllables, but the old Lavigne was so happily overwrought she could make a postcard sentiment sound like it was the end of the world. All this amounts to is a listless “damn.”
[4]