Ashley Monroe – Hands on You
And here’s that mid-range [7] we’ve been looking for…

[Video]
[7.71]
Alex Clifton: Sexy and taut; Monroe commands my attention the whole way through, as does that guitar line. The producers of Fifty Shades could stand to learn something from Monroe’s three minutes, because they couldn’t even produce anything remotely this arresting over the span of three films.
[8]
Alfred Soto: It’s hard to be levelheaded about Ashley Monroe: when she unleashes her high steady tones on a twang-insistent fuck-me plaint she can sound like the most sympathetic singer in the biz, not to mention a person who understands the politics of sex better than most of the men fortunate enough to receive her concentration.
[9]
Katherine St Asaph: The divide between trad- and bro-country, as these divides typically are, tends to be talked about in terms of stuffy vs. lusty. But here’s Ashley Monroe with a decidedly old-fashioned plaint, that nevertheless comes across way more familiar with actual sexual desire than the whole group of dudes talking about tight jeans or whatever. There’s no soft-focus — a bathroom stall shows up in verse one — nor any coyness or flirtation: just nerve-level regret, loneliness, and want that Monroe draws out far longer than lesser artists might. The tinny bridge should really be a guitar solo, but that’s a quibble.
[9]
Will Adams: “Hands on You” singes with the regret of sun rays waking you before your alarm, when you’re hungover and sprawled on your bed, alone again, wincing as you review last night’s memories and mark them with red pen. While I wish the song hadn’t bothered with the extraneous strings and synths in the third act, it’s captivating material that Ashley Monroe lives in.
[6]
Jonathan Bradley: Monroe doesn’t pursue the Gothic undertones of this simmering groove, one that, at times, threatens to complete its transformation into a Bond theme or Nancy Sinatra track. She does well playing it straight, apportioning her lusts in soft and sleepy measures, as if she were singing from a bed, alone, and taking great pauses to draw out the desire. I can’t help but be distracted by the other meaning of laying hands, though.
[7]
Thomas Inskeep: Very There’s More Where That Came From, this has a late ’60s country vibe with a dash of Chris Isaak and some amped-up sex appeal. And Ashley Monroe’s voice is divine.
[7]
Edward Okulicz: Normally my teeth would grind at a line like “I wish I would have laid my hands on you,” but instead I’m taken by Monroe’s ability to sing her regret at a tryst not taken in a way that makes it feel like a huge tragedy being retold. Not just retold, though, her performance utterly drenches itself in desire.
[8]
Reader average: [8.75] (4 votes)