The Singles Jukebox

To be fair, we like it more than we liked Darius Rucker going country…

[Video][Website]
[5.44]

Jonathan Bogart: There’s not a lot in pop that I want more than for Beth Ditto to be a massive star; unfortunately, this determinedly retro house anthem, sounding like something Madonna — or, worse, Kylie — would have left on the cutting room floor in 1997, isn’t going to be it. It’s not just that I miss the abrasiveness of the Gossip (though a hard-edged dubstep remix might go a long way towards appeasing me) — I miss their velocity. Ditto’s remarkable gospel-punk voice requires a much more urgent setting than this burbling midtempo blah.
[6]

Martin Skidmore: In an indie context, she sounded an exceptional vocal talent; in a dancier context, her voice sounds less special. This is pleasant enough squelchy indie-dance, but the song doesn’t offer much opportunity for her to stretch.
[6]

Chuck Eddy: Once upon a time, the idea of a former alleged garage punk making such a blatant Eurodance move would’ve hit me as daring and exciting. But I guess Ditto has been moving in that direction for a while now, even if I never much heard the soul influence people seemed to claim for her, and to be honest she never struck me as all that intriguing a garage punk to begin with. Her Eurodance move is…okay.
[5]

Jer Fairall: At least Gaga had the good sense to rip off one of Madonna’s most beloved hits, rather than an Erotica or Bedtime Stories filler track.
[5]

Anthony Easton: Classic Disco, Amazing Beats, Beautiful Sound. Lyrics of severity that refuses to betray heart break. Done.
[8]

Jonathan Bradley: The sort of chilled beats I could ignore at the start of a night out.
[3]

Ian Mathers: I like early Madonna, I like the Gossip, I can barely stand this. Too busy? Her voice sounds wrong? I genuinely don’t know. It’s like some mysterious, unknowable Bermuda Triangle of pop music.
[4]

Alfred Soto: She should know about “good intentions” — her career’s been an avatar for them. I don’t hear any taint of “empowerment” or “consciousness-raising” in this low-key thumper, just a voice that flirts with interesting thanks to sudden falsetto swoops and a modest talent for riding the sequencer line like an early nineties diva. I still don’t believe she inhabits her lyrics: she’s more apt to compose a screed that’s well-received by the Woman’s Center of a mid-level public university. And her audience is more apt to remember it over “I Wrote the Book.”
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Beth Ditto in The Gossip is to Beth Ditto solo as a human is to her own ice sculpture. It’s breathtaking how much you can crystallize someone, but you can only half-see her face in the glass. Seconds later, it all melts away.
[6]