The Singles Jukebox

We don’t go to [11]…

[Video]
[6.50]

Kayla Beardslee: “Eleven” is fine (and so obviously indebted to “Rum Pum Pum“), but it’s missing a distinctive sonic identity. There are sounds, sure, but I’m not fully convinced that any of these sounds actually have a personality. Again, it works fine! (Fine enough to catapult Ive into having one of the biggest rookie-group hits of last year.) But sometimes that’s a damning word.
[6]

Rose Stuart: Not all good songs are good debut songs. “Eleven” is a good song: it has a great beat, a gorgeous instrumental, and an exciting melody that throws semitones around in a genre that rarely strays from standard pop melodic progression. The fundamentals are all there, but the song never rises above them; never reaches a peak that transforms it from decent to amazing. Part of the blame does lie with the song, which finds a style it likes and sticks to it without deviation, but when it slows down to give impact to a chorus that might otherwise have had none, it becomes impossible to ignore that it’s sung by teenagers. “Eleven” is a mature song, one that takes risks, but it’s also a basic one. It’s a song that rides or dies on the strength of its performers, and they don’t yet have all of their strengths to give. They’re not doing bad, not at all, but they’re trying to inject youthful energy and bubblegum into a song that should by all rights be dark and sultry. Combined with shots in the video where you can see the safety shorts of underage girls, the it can all teeter on the edge of uncomfortable. Maybe several years into their career, Ive will be able to carry it to the heights it had the potential to reach. But as it stands, that potential is woefully unrealized.
[6]

Alfred Soto: It’s not Ive’s fault the backing track hits an acceptable level of okay, and nor will I miss a wink of sleep for awarding it the same number score to which they count off. 
[7]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: This score is only fair because they do only count up to
[7]

Leah Isobel: “Eleven”‘s chorus comes crashing through with all the subtlety of a battering ram — and about as much melody, too. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the build-up is such a goofy, gimmicky pop pleasure that it feels like a bit of a letdown.
[7]

Ian Mathers: This works pretty well when it’s at its lowest key and you can hear that post-“Bootylicious” frantic thrum, and again when the full chorus hits. But some of the prefatory bits and the couple of times they slow down are kind of meh. Which is one reason it’s smart to keep this to about three minutes — the meh bits are pretty minor!
[6]