The Singles Jukebox

Why did nobody tell me her middle name is PIRATE? PIRATE!

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[6.00]

Tobi Tella: It’s a weird combination of artists, especially for a song from the 13 Reasons Why soundtrack, but it works much better than it has any right to. The production is lovely and orchestral, the lyrics are great, and my god, that vocal arrangement. Hearing something this beautiful from two (relatively) mainstream artists was a very pleasant surprise.
[8]

Will Adams: A study in other shoes dropping; after an odd, confronting record that demands attention, we get a drippy piano ballad complete with tacked on feature to maximize clicks.
[3]

Alfred Soto: The string arrangement guarantees that the track will honor the title, and the worried wrinkles of the vocals provide a touch of dissonance. A soundtrack trifle to watch as accompaniment, not enjoy on the radio.
[6]

Ian Mathers: Wow, despite the constant flourishing of the “featuring” or “with” credit I can’t remember the last time the interplay of two voices was this essential to the beauty and impact of the finished product. Even without that this would be a gorgeous, despondent undertow of a song (the fact that it starts off sounding a bit like one of my favourite Massive Attack songs isn’t a minus), with the way Eilish and Khalid merge and mesh and push off of each other it really does take the results to another level.
[9]

Edward Okulicz: Khalid isn’t an artist I think too much about, but between this and “Love Lies,” I think he may have a calling as Guy Who Sings With Female Singers And Sounds Good Doing It. This is a better song than “Love Lies” for the most part, with a lovely orchestral arrangement and packing a lot of drama into 3 minutes 20. That “isn’t it lovely” chorus is a moment of ghostly tweeness that does dial down the drama in a bad way, but for the most part it’s pretty captivating, and all the more when Eilish and Khalid combine.
[7]

John Seroff: After a few blind listens, I was pretty certain “Lovely” was a last, stale leftover from the 50 Shades Freed soundtrack. Not to be too trenchant, but finding that it instead hails from Netflix’s teen suicide drama 13 Reasons Why was more depressing that surprising. A crashing wave in search of a shore or (more likely) a Zales commercial.
[3]