Putting the home in home video…

[Video][Website]
[6.91]

Anthony Easton: In the last week, due a little bit to it being summer, a little bit due to generous friends, and a little bit due to friends, I have noticed that I am drinking a lot more. I like the walking home unsteady and a bit rambling, not enough to continue the pattern to Gin Lane territory, but enough to remember the ironic juxtaposition that is the key of booze. It is a depressive that makes you loose and ebullient, a substance that smears cognitive skills while convincing that one is being sharp, and one that weakens physical skills while giving you the hope of acrobats and gymnasts. That and the nakedness. This song is one of the better ones at encapsulating the four ciders and three glasses of syrah feeling. 
[9]

Pete Baran: Certainly any song with a rattly snare and airhorns so high up in the mix is best listened to sober, or at least without a hangover. Not that Jade appears to understand what causes drunkeness, since she doesn’t mention booze anywhere in the song. That said it’s a perfectly formed gem, which perturbs me. Do I want to dance so much to a song called sober? Ah, back on the demon pop.
[8]

Jonathan Bogart: When the only criticism I can think to make is that her voice is a touch too smooth to entirely dominate a beat this raucous — complete with airhorns — that’s hardly a knock. It’s still loads more fun than something like, say, “Searching”, which takes full advantage of that smoothness.
[9]

Brad Shoup: Be careful about leaning too hard on the airhorns. Alston’s labored contralto on the verses kicks against the production, but the chorus delivers so much data. “Sober” as a sentenced state, synths as translucent as the sweat from an overlong evening nap. Everything else is too on-the-nose, negative-image cymbals aside.
[6]

Patrick St. Michel: Jade Alston sounds so thrilled recounting how she felt after she got over her heartbreak — “thought I would never sleep again/and I would never love again” — because on “Sober” she gets the chance to finally move past those post-breakup doldrums. The joy she brings to her vocals pushes the song above mere Rihanna imitation into a catchy bit of revenge-through-living-better pop.
[7]

Alex Ostroff: Unlike most other alcohol + heartbreak tracks, this isn’t about recovering from the post-breakup binge, but from a long-term state of lovedrunkenness. Jade could stand to belt a bit more, but her voice (and her martial drumline) are firmly in Jazmine Sullivan territory and that’s never a bad thing. I would note that it’s also a perfect hairbrush/mirror song — after months of practice, I pretty much have my routine down — but the video makes that point for me. So, I’ll just quickly mention how delightful the well-supported tennis-player-style “HUH!”s are, and get back to singing in front of the mirror.
[9]

Katherine St Asaph: Military drums, sirens, mixed drunkenness metaphors (which part’s the heartbreak — bleary tipsiness, or hangover hell? Isn’t “tonight I’ll get sober” down there with “evacuate the dance floor” in counterintuitive hooks?), pre-emptive swiping by Alicia Keys: I should’ve been sick of this by second zero. But it’s just so damn likable, so fizzy berry cider light, that it transcends all that. I’ll sign her sobriety pledge any day.
[8]

Will Adams: Her enunciation of “AGAINNNNNNN” is rather annoying, the sobriety-as-romantic-freedom conceit is tired, and the synths are far too low in the mix. I do like the bits with the martial drums and the “oh-now-now”s, which sell her liberty far more convincingly than the rest of the song. More of that, please?
[4]

Jonathan Bradley: Drums! …And not much else. I like the hook; it’s sweet enough to make me wish Alston had swiped it from a better song, but even that lovely chorus arrives too muted and demure. Remember “Lose My Breath,” and how alive it sounded?
[5]

Michaela Drapes: It’s not often I demand better verses, but the storyline is impossibly clunky next to the banging hook anchoring the chorus, enough to knock this down of potential earworm territory. I get that Jade’s bailiwick is the Land of the Brokenhearted, but it’s never a good idea to be heavy-handed about these kinds of things.
[5]

Alfred Soto: A smart decision to smother the airhorns until the outro buoys Alston’s own airhorn of a voice. It’s been a few years, however, since I applauded every post-Amerie production in which a frantic percussion and a willing singer go toe to toe. In other words, a good track that I probably won’t play much.
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