The Singles Jukebox

Remember back in the day, when people used to complain about how the Jukebox was all on Scandinavia’s dick all the time? Different world, 2006…

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[4.57]

Michaelangelo Matos: Is this a joke? (Actual question.)
[5]

Martin Skidmore: A former Swedish Idol runner-up and now a big star there; he sounds a bit of a bore to me. There’s a bit of tension thanks to the strong strings on this, but his voice is a bit boyish to maintain that. The song trudges along pretty tediously. Still, good gospelish backing vocals and compelling strings gain it some marks.
[6]

Anthony Easton: Has anyone sampled Liberace in contemporary R&B? This sort of reminds me of that.
[4]

Alfred Soto: Is he sure those stabbing strings and backup vocals aren’t the real culprits?
[3]

David Raposa: Couldn’t stand this anthemic canned-choir “Never Surrender” horseshit when I was half Darin’s age, and the fact that this bathetic pandemic threatens to once again rear its well-coiffed head over the pop landscape from across the sea doesn’t make me any less crotchety. Get off my lawn, you ponce.
[4]

Jonathan Bogart: Point for the unnecessarily-huge backing choir. But if you’re gonna try to emulate Michael Jackson, son, you’re gonna wanna haul in the slack on your beat till it’s wound up taut and paranoid. Oh, you’re trying to emulate Jason Derulo? Carry on, then.
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: When your first chorus already brings the choral-orchestral bombast, there’s nowhere left to go. Darin tries a few new vocal runs toward the end, and they’re earnest enough, but it’s still like dropping a sprinkler packet into a mushroom cloud and calling it escalation.
[5]