Not letting artists grade their own work here, oh dear no.

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[5.67]

Patrick St. Michel: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Clean Bandit, but this song is a step forward. It’s more dramatic than what they’ve produced before, actually using all those strings and pianos they’ve threaded into their music before actually adding something to the larger structure. Plus, it features some fun sonic wrinkles, like the entire track stopping for half-a-second before diving back into its dance-pop bounce.
[7]

Abby Waysdorf: There’s something pleasingly nostalgic about Clean Bandit, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. There was something in my childhood that sounded just like this (and even more like “Rather Be”), and I’m perhaps more inclined to it than I would be otherwise. This is an awful lot like “Rather Be,” which I hear a lot around here, but perhaps a little more propulsive, a little more of a proper dance song. The beat’s a little more prominent under the strings and percussion, the chorus a little more frantic. It’s still mellow, though, still pleasant, still the kind of electronic music that works in every setting imaginable. Which means I’ll probably hear it in every setting imaginable. I’ll have to see how I still feel about it after that happens. 
[7]

Will Adams: Since when do house vocalists need to be Autotuned?
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: With so much competent dance-pop coming out of the UK, you’ve got to have culling tools. Here’s one: If you removed everything Clean Bandit did, would the result be ballady drip that’s too background even for background music?
[3]

Crystal Leww: On principle, I’m a little suspicious about Clean Bandit’s schtick, which seems to suggest that dance music can also be Real Music if you get Creative and add real instruments like piano and strings. It comes to bite them in the ass, as the strings in “Extraordinary” stand out as being particularly unnecessary, and each time they’re utilized as a “Your Turn” showcase for every member of their band’s talent. Still, this is buoyed by the warm simplicity of Sharna Bass, who never oversings this, letting her “real” and “feel” drag on just enough for effect without showcasing and sounds best over the most blatantly dance parts of the this track. Maybe Clean Bandit needs to do some re-evaulating.
[5]

Alfred Soto: Well, no, not extraordinary. Sharna Bass sounds persuasively conflicted over the steel drum sample and, later, the strings. But the beats cry for MNEK to program them.
[4]

Scott Mildenhall: This sounds enough like “Rather Be” to fulfil the “sounds like “Rather Be”” quotient (never mind the accent, the latter halves of the verses are essentially rewordings), while offering enough to differentiate itself from it — plucking noises that feel like nods to garage, steel drums, an ear-catching lift on “sympathise” — if not the strength to have any chance of usurping it. Clean Bandit have more than this.
[6]

Brad Shoup: The strings are stirring — one of a host of Balearic touches — but they’re not a substitute for a harmony vocal. The topline is more Top 40, but the staccato programming and steel pan knock things off the dial eventually.
[7]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: The pounding aside, “Extraordinary” sounds like some excellent end title music for a romance anime: clean, hooky, a touch too gooey.
[6]