The Singles Jukebox

And to think they used to call him the Asian Craig David…

[Video][Website]
[4.64]

Michaelangelo Matos: Wikipedia quotes Touch as calling this dude “the U.K.’s answer to Ne-Yo.” On the evidence of this one song, well, no, unless they just mean keening, pleading, winning voice and not total package. Obviously one song isn’t a total picture, and this is good enough to wonder what else he has up his sleeve. But winning doesn’t equal original, especially with lyrics these standard. Say what you want about Ne-Yo’s occasional clinkers, he’s trying.
[7]

Renato Pagnani: If the sky was falling, I’m pretty sure you’d be worrying about something other than whether some girl is going to put out. Just sayin’.
[3]

Rodney J. Greene: Any good cliche can be made to work if the performer buys into it enough to inhabit the cliche. Unfortunately, this song has about eighteen of them and Jay Sean does not audibly believe in a single one.
[3]

Martin Kavka: I am in love with Jay Sean. His shoulders are like butternut squash, and his eyebrows like vanilla beans. When he smiles at me — at meeeeeee and no one else — in the video, I know that we will be together forever, and that Lil Wayne will be the minister at our wedding. Oh, and the song is delightful, even if part of me does see it as an overly calculated move by Cash Money records to get American girls and non-Americans to part from their hard-earned cash. Still, with those eyebrows, it’s a damn good calculation.
[8]

Alfred Soto: I like how Jay turns “getaway” into “ghetto-way.” The rest is automatic Auto-Tune twaddle that Mario might enjoy. Even with nothing to say, though, Wayne makes like the guy who pops up out of the backseat to surprise the couple necking up front.
[4]

Chuck Eddy: A passingly cute boy-band facsimile, but I’d like Jay more if he actually called himself Kamaljit Singh Jhooti. Weezy could’ve come up with funny rhymes for that name for sure. As is, I’m not even sure why he showed up, though his “Communist” shirt in the video is a hoot.
[5]

Ian Mathers: So little Wayne is really just coasting on the texture of his AutoTuned voice these days, huh? It’s too bad, he’s distracting, and the rest of “Down” is a solidly competent if kind of unexciting song.
[6]

Martin Skidmore: The autotuning is light, except of course on Wayne’s pretty horrid guest verse, and the beats are lively, with some very good throbbing strings in places. The song’s bright and catchy enough, too. Trouble is, I don’t much care for his singing, which seems plain and weak, and strained on some higher notes.
[6]

Dan MacRae: This is a bland dollop of gloss with a “lite FM” business card located where its heart should be. That said, I would hate to discourage Jay Sean too much because the accompanying music video is an absurd triumph of unnecessary minor visual effects. If Craig David had whizzing lights and sparkles in his videos, he might have been able to properly crack the American market.
[3]

Tal Rosenberg: I’m almost positive Jay Sean roofied one girl’s drink in the video. And Lil’ Wayne is just sitting there, laughing about it.
[3]

Frank Kogan: A generically pretty tune that’s not all that pretty, the singing just plain wanky, AutoTune not disguising the wank. Tedium.
[3]