The Singles Jukebox

An Ed Sheeran verse: You bought it, you…

[Video]
[4.67]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: This new experiment where they mash-up the regular and Kidz Bop versions of the same song in one mix is not going particularly well.
[4]

Alex Clifton: With all these random Ed Sheeran features over the past year, I’ve become increasingly anxious that he might pop up in places I really don’t want him to, like outside my front door or leaping out from under a pile of clothes in my cupboard. Hell, maybe he’s hiding under the kitchen sink; I’m too afraid to check. If 2019 could bring an end to the decade of the unnecessary Sheeran feature, I’d be eternally grateful.
[4]

Oliver Maier: I physically braced for Sheeran’s verse and still I was not prepared. Stormzy isn’t really pulling his weight lyrically but he and Burna Boy at least sound at home on the beat, a shadowy dancehall lurch that fits their deeper timbres. Then Ed starts dropping his sickening little melismas all over it and singing backup falsetto to himself and I would rather be listening to anything else.
[5]

Tobi Tella: Part of Stormzy’s appeal is the passion and hustle you can get from just his voice, so this low-key vibe isn’t really what I want from him. Burna Boy fades into the background, Ed Sheeran shows up and is less annoying than I expected, mostly thanks to a shortened and subdued feature, but no one stands out really. A generic output from all three artists.
[5]

Alfred Soto: Stormzy’s solid performance and Ed Sheeran working his best Timberlake impression enliven a rather standard dance track by a crew of dudes I can’t imagine boogieing on a Saturday night.
[5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Pop songs, especially pop songs by established, critically-respected-but-not-quite-loved guys like these, are tending towards a sort of MCU-like stasis. “Own It” has very little going against it (most of the bad is concentrated in the back half of Sheeran’s verse, because he clearly has no idea what he’s doing here), but an equally scarce amount on its side. African Giant and “Vossi Bop” were two of the pop highlights of the past year, full of precision-strike moments of pride and skill, but everything feels sanded-down and washed out here, a record full of callbacks that never really earns them.
[5]