aka “Beer for Breakfast”

[Video][Website]
[4.00]

Nina Lea Oishi: The problem with this single and the problem with Rita Ora are the same: catchy enough, but without personality. Ora’s plenty stylish (as this video proves), but “Poison” aspires to higher heights that it never reaches, instead fated to make a blip on the radar.
[4]

Anthony Easton: How long do we have to pretend that Rita Ora is worth talking about? I know Madonna isn’t bored of her, but haven’t we discounted Madonna already? 
[2]

Micha Cavaseno: Bonus points for the “BATTERY OUT OF JUICE” descending gears at the beginning of the chorus into this brutish stomp of ruthless domination masquerading as vulnerability. Minus points for how Auto-tune flanges Ora’s screeches into notes, revealing the recklessness as decorative fluff on a whatever ditty.
[4]

Alfred Soto: It’s got the onomatopoetic hook designed to translate for European and Asian audiences, an industrial arrangement that buzzes like a power saw in an empty shed, and a committed Ora performance, but, man alive, do I dislike the modern trend of getting to the climax without a breath, beer with breakfast or not.
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: Bro-step ballads are not a good idea in any way.
[2]

Iain Mew: Roaring over EDM-as-rock, Rita Ora ends up at the most adequate Pink song for a good while.
[6]

Will Adams: In which Rita Ora ditches the sugar rush of “I Will Never Let You Down” in favor of a sluggish power ballad template that she howls the whole way through.
[4]

Brad Shoup: “I could have beer for breakfast” — well, what’s stopping you? Ora soars above a mildly queasy drop; if he’s poison, I think she’s gonna recover.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Beer for breakfast, sanity for lunch, innocence for dinner — the fuck is this, Dictionopolis? The writers on this tend toward overwrought and overwritten, so the quality is no surprise.
[1]

Scott Mildenhall: Perhaps if this was Rita Ora’s first solo single, rather than one that follows five, often straightforwardly upbeat ones, perceptions of her by the imaginary people created for this argument may be different. Seriousface suits her. She sounds trapped and tormented, queasy to the degree that she can only express herself with statements that, to say the least, play fast and loose with the definition of poison. It’s the kind of terrible/brilliant songwriting not inconsistent with Kate Nash’s involvement.
[7]