The Singles Jukebox

No, you can keep it…

[Video][Website]
[3.00]

Alfred Soto: Days after Dierks Bentley reminded us and probably himself that women are beautiful, along comes this gaunt, splendidly coiffed dude with amnesia.
[1]

Ryo Miyauchi: “Yours” scans as country, however loosely, but more like “final scene of a 2000s sappy romance movie.” Said film would most likely not be a YA adaptation, maybe a release from the earlier half of that decade, or at least stick this in its soundtrack, which also features Nickelback and The Fray.
[3]

Jonathan Bradley: I’m reminded of an old gag about Christian rock, which posits that the genre rewrites secular love songs to make the object not a girl, but Jesus. In this case, Dickerson does the reverse: how sweet is this woman who saved a wretch like he. His verses are a succession of worn images, but, befitting a praise song, he dotes on his abjection as evidence of the miracle of his salvation. Yet for all the deeply felt fervor he summons in service of these burned-out stars and boats in bottles, Dickerson gives himself over to a life-changing void. “Yours” is a ballad of devotion devoted to no one; Dickerson wells with deep feeling, but, having summoned so much passion for his past, he has nothing to say about his future: it exists only in terms of what he’s now not. If he doesn’t care, why should we?
[4]

Stephen Eisermann: MOR, barely mid-tempo country, but there’s no objectification of Russell’s girl, so good job?
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: This was boring when Taylor Swift sang it and it was called “Mine.” Encasing it in a hulking ballad arrangement doesn’t make it less boring.
[3]

Anthony Easton: Dickerson’s voice is rich enough, but bland without any real spin or variation. The lyrics refuse specificity, and they don’t build. The narrative doesn’t grow from an arresting initial image. 
[2]

Will Adams: “A boat stuck in a bottle” is a neat summary, actually: a pretty mantlepiece that’s nice to look at for a few seconds, but any longer and you become intensely aware of its uselessness.
[4]