The Singles Jukebox

Unbearably smoove Frenchman continues his career of unbearable smooveness…

[Video][Website]
[5.82]

Keane Tzong: David Guetta does a slightly better version of his usual, nicking an instrumental from Peter Santos and sprucing it up a touch so that it builds from a tinkly piano line into a crashing, swooping monster. And then Kelly hits the chorus; instantly, it’s all over. She mishandles the chorus so spectacularly on her own, negative comparisons to Beyonce aren’t even necessary. But since she is Kelly Rowland, that spectre rears its head anyway — it’s a comparison that does her no favors, and a comparison that reminds us that Kelly never will be the one we truly want.
[5]

Hillary Brown: OMG this is so what Kelly Rowland needs to be doing. All the time. Fast, punchy, and soaring.
[7]

Jessica Popper: I think that with the combined fame of these two acts, and the surprise of them collaborating, this song is bound to be a hit. With Kelly’s presence it naturally has crossover appeal for casual dance fans, but its infectious chorus means that I think it would have done well even with an unknown vocalist.
[7]

Martin Skidmore: Polished French house, and it’s always a real pleasure to hear decent dance music with such a classy and strong singer. The music is sleek and smooth, but doesn’t seem to do anything very special, and Kelly has to do a lot of work to make the rather basic and repetitive song (it could be a happy hardcore lyric) stand up and attract attention. Of course she is a good enough singer to do that, so the end result is fairly striking: she is what turns this from an okay single to a good one.
[7]

Alex Macpherson: Beyoncé’s erstwhile handmaiden demonstrated, to the surprise of most, that she was a viable pop star in her own right on 2007’s Ms Kelly. Her finest moments came when she delivered quiet nuance, though (“Still In Love With My Ex” and “Gotsta Go Part 1” in particular), all those years as second fiddle having left her unable to impose herself on a song: the louder she sang and the more imperious she tried to sound, the less character she possessed. “When Love Takes Over”, though, is a kinda boring bosh track which demands a full-bodied house diva belting over it to make it worth anyone’s while; with Rowland, it’s just negligible.
[2]

Edward Okulicz: Kelly’s charisma comes through the verses, but sadly she’s not up to the chorus – she’s got less power than I imagined, and less feeling than I hoped. Oh, and the piano loop is just “Clocks”, isn’t it? I hate “Clocks”. Obviously it’s improved by putting something else on top of it, but it’s like covering poison in creamy milk chocolate.
[4]

Iain Mew: Half a decade on and the looping piano of Coldplay’s “Clocks” is still only just beginning to lose the dread, dark weight of intense overfamiliarity. It’s hard to think of many worse hooks to not add anything of interest to.
[2]

Tom Ewing: David Guetta takes some poppers and rewrites “Clocks”; Kelly Rowland answers a want ad for a house diva and ends up loving the job; one monster chorus later and you’ve got 2009’s best Handbag House tune – if only it didn’t end so abruptly: extended mix pls.
[9]

Ian Mathers: A vaguely gospelly romantic house tune, somewhat in the tradition of “You Got the Love.” You don’t hear songs like this often enough any more, and although Guetta and Rowland don’t really do anything new with the form, they execute it to perfection.
[8]

Martin Kavka: David Guetta must have looked at his bank balance recently and thought it a bit on the small side, for this is even more populist than “Love Don’t Let Me Go,” and surprisingly Not At All Crap, But Actually Quite Good Indeed. And who knew that Kelly Destiny could sing like this?
[9]

Dave Moore: [Insert obligatory “Clocks” reference. Note that this is somehow the most interesting thing about the song. Ask someone who David Guetta is.]
[4]