The Singles Jukebox

Her third hit single. Yes, we did have to look up what her second one was…

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[5.00]

Hillary Brown: I’ll be real impressed by whatever the rest of y’all have to say about this song, which is such an utter blandfest that I can’t even think of much insulting to write other than that, you know, it’s not that offensive to the ears.
[3]

Anthony Easton: I like the out of breath quality that fails to breach panic, plus the extended syllables. Sounds a bit amateurish, with a really doctrinaire production, but for some reason that’s not really to its detriment.
[7]

Chuck Eddy: I think I hear a little “Luka” in the verses; Suzanne Vega might have added more interesting details, improving the song but foiling the business plan.
[5]

Ian Mathers: The guitar intro to this puts me in mind of an acoustic version of U2’s “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)”, which is, surprisingly enough, a plus; I thought her last single was pretty insufferable, but her voice is commendably plainspoken, and nothing about “Fallin’ for You” suffers under the delusion that it’s anything but a pleasant piece of fluff. But hell, it’s summer; sometimes that’s enough.
[6]

Alfred Soto: The opening guitar strums borrow from Freedy Johnston’s “Responsible,” but that’s too imaginative for this not unpleasant slice of wistfulness that’s also too modest to get treacly. She’s like a student who confides in you but leaves when she senses you’re bored.
[5]

Anthony Miccio: It’s fun to bait Cat Power/Feist fans by praising Caillat’s easygoing hooks and straightforward lyrics, but this is too thin even for MOR – “you hold my hand…we start to dance” is as close to a concrete detail as we get. The Fleetwood Mac guitar fills in the oddly drawn-out finish only underline the facileness.
[5]

Alex Ostroff: Her light, frothy AM radio fare is the inverse of Taylor Swift’s: pop tending towards the edges of country. Melodically, musically and even vocally, there are Taylor-adjacent moments here, but where Taylor takes cliche and transmutes it to painful realism, Colbie has the unique ability to leech a situation of all specificity.
[5]

Martin Skidmore: I like her voice, which is smooth and sweet, and this is a more than pleasant pop song. On the other hand, she sounds weak on the high notes and a bit mechanical on the chorus, and the strumming arrangement is uninspiring. Vaguely likeable, but mostly I just feel like shrugging.
[5]

Iain Mew: This, especially the intro, bears a remarkable resemblance to whatever it is Match Of The Day use for their Goal of the Month montages. So it’s not entirely Colbie’s fault that it makes me think of Ronaldo free kicks more than unrequited love, but it’s all a bit too drab and polite for her to really push the alternative.
[4]

Michaelangelo Matos: The children of session pros may have a grasp of normality that eludes those of actual famous people, but blandness knows no bounds.
[5]