Seems we like her better than him…

[Video][Website]
[5.30]

Michaela Drapes: Rita Ora’s killer pipes deserve a better setting than this tin-can production from DJ Fresh; she needs bolder, lusher, bigger sounds to buoy her lovely voice. Instead, the bedrock of this track is teetering around on stilts while Rita’s off in the clouds, leaving everyone far behind.
[4]

John Seroff: “Hot Right Now” isn’t notably different in quality (or, honestly, quantity) than his 2010 “Gold Dust”. The latter was among my favorite songs of the year and if the second batch from the same batter isn’t quite as great as the first, it’s still exemplary. Rita Ora’s vocals mix some of the catchiest attributes of Brandy and Ms. Dynamite. So much depends on that nitro blast of tick-tick-ticketyticktick underscoring most of the track. Manic b-boy energy goes a long way.  This is one of the few tracks the Jukebox has introduced me to this year that I’m consistently returning to post deadline.
[8]

Brad Shoup: Sure, let’s follow up a number-one single with a little territorial pissing. Maybe the drum ‘n’ bass world is cut ‘n’ throat, and I’m just unaware. The theme is weirdly compelling, but the constipated organ isn’t, and I can’t imagine anyone putting this into their emotional rotation.
[4]

Iain Mew: This is basically “Louder” without the thrilling shift up in gear, mostly because it starts out just as full on. That is not a bad thing.
[7]

Anthony Easton: My hands are firmly at my side, because I don’t want it right now.
[3]

Andy Hutchins: 1) I like D&B better than dubstep. 2) I can’t believe that I also listen to this and fondly remember the electrostomp that broke in 2008. Roc Nation signee Rita Ora is probably supposed to be Rihanna 2.0, but I’d definitely be fine with the amalgamation of Christina Milian and the people who sing on Major Lazer albums this suggests.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Half of this is a drum-and-bass remix of “Rude Boy” by droids that did helium to sound more eager than Rihanna; half of this is a Krispy Kreme jingle. There is no way I can take either half seriously.
[5]

Jer Fairall: Blame the sci-fi nerd in me that still regards an excess of technology with suspicion and menace, I suppose, but I wish there was a little more distance put between this girl’s heavily autotuned voice and the robot one that comes in support her; I keep scanning for the tension between human and machine that presenting the singer as one more inhuman component has denied the song. Otherwise, this is an infectious blast, the initial thirty seconds of hesitation and preamble giving way to a unceasing, heady rush. Possibly even more fun if heard while watching the video, though it would definitely be even more fun if you got to be one of the video’s acrobatic participants.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Aerobics were hot once.
[2]

Jonathan Bogart: Under certain conditions, velocity is its own reward.
[7]