Kelly Rowland – Down For Whatever
Six singles off one album? She must think she’s Beyonce.
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[4.83]
Alfred Soto: I’m sure you are.
[2]
Iain Mew: “Let’s get creative” suggests Kelly, but the most creative thing she comes up with is making love on the floor. Fittingly, the most creative the music gets is a My First Dubstep Track version of “On the Floor”.
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: The title couldn’t be apter; on her album, Kelly’s down for whatever and whomever will toss her a track. Here, she’s down to upgrade (downgrade? swap themes?) from David Guetta to RedOne. The inevitable anonymity doesn’t suit the song; she doesn’t sound excited but resigned, revising her standards lower with every hour and drink and swallowing “[when it comes to/because of] you” enough that it can’t be true.
[6]
Hazel Robinson: She has a gorgeous, warm vocal of the sort I find insanely appealing and the fact she’s got a lot of technical skill should mean that there’s a queue of amazing, well-above-average dance tracks queueing up for her. Instead this is, what, a Leona Lewis offcut? The bits of ‘On The Floor’ that Jennifer Lopez didn’t end up using? One guest verse short of a Pitbull? Unmemorable, for the most part.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: This is pretty much the State of Dance Music 2011, with all the dubstep WUB-WUB and clattering buildups and big booming beats that implies. The only thing she’s left out is AutoTune, but it’s hard to imagine that it could help her dominate proceedings any more.
[7]
Brad Shoup: No disrespect to Rowland’s midcareer Euro-excursions, but I don’t think she’s done sexy better than when she teamed with Eve and Polow da Don. Awkwardly inserted wobbles and floor sex versus voyeurism and group play? Do we call this a contest? Especially if the floor in question is in a club and not, say, a 37th-floor condo apartment or a walk-in shower. Wobbles aside, this is a fun electro-pop shuffle suffering from either too much or not enough specificity.
[6]