Country singer: “I am sad about love.”

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Brad Shoup: Major points for wresting the ex-assignation subgenre into the physical realm, all hands under shirts and conversations held at a centimeter’s breadth. Shame about the brittle construction and metronomic pace.
[5]

Anthony Easton: The spaces between his words, intended to convey depth, convey trying too hard. Another country song that doesn’t know when to cut off a perfectly good sexytimes before it becomes a relationship. Not nearly as dumb as his song “Apple Pie Moonshine,” but close.
[6]

Alfred Soto: A sucker for earnest chugs like this, I was prepared to embrace it because we now live in a post-“Need You Now” world. But Owen’s voice only sounds lovestung on the “Don’t put your lips to my mouth” part — the only distinguished note in a rote arrangement that can’t distinguish between verses and choruses, much less bridges.
[5]

Zach Lyon: Sounds like 80s new wave vocals over an Eagles track; both good things. I like it when it pops up on the radio, and I love the last word. But if you told me that this, right now, is the last time I’ll ever listen to “Alone With You” by Jake Owen again, I’d probably say, “Okay, whatev-” before I see a cat in the distance and try to pet it.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: That opening couplet — “I don’t see you laugh/you don’t call me back,” heaved out amid a slump of a guitar line — would be wrenching even if it didn’t lead to more specific, horrific details, the girl not mixing her messages but vandalizing them. Who knew Lady Antebellum’s stagnant pleasantries would resonate if they were all lies?
[7]

Edward Okulicz: You’ve been there; you love her but she toys with you because you’re convenient or available and she knows you want her. You get drunk with her but then recoil at her touch because it hurts to have half of someone when you want the whole piece. The lyrics speaks to my memories of a dozen crushes vaguely, maybe one or two specifically. In speaking of the need for those small things — to see her laugh, the return of a phone call — Owen gets at the clawing longing without spelling it out tediously. Most of all, I believe his portrayal of the conflict between the heart and mind — he sings like he might choke up. There’s strength in his weakness. For the self-identification as much as the hooks, this is making me choke up too.
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