The Singles Jukebox

Less perfect more imperfections…

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[4.33]

Katie Gill: Man, John Legend’s still stuck on how best to follow up “All of Me”?
[5]

Alfred Soto: “Who’s gonna kiss you when I’m gone?” he whinnies over the politest of dance beats. Why worry? You’ll be dead. That’s the John Legend Problem: when he sings his romantic banalities he’s not persuasive.
[3]

Tim de Reuse: Oh, John Legend — always so dramatic! But this one feels like it’s got even higher stakes than his recent output: his voice jumps and wavers over teary orchestral strings and a driving Hans Zimmer-worthy percussion section. Such an uptempo, enthusiastic backdrop deserves a properly gut-wrenching narrative arc, or at least a single iconic phrase somewhere in the refrain. Unfortunately, in both its composition and its lyrics, it feels aimless, like Legend is endlessly climbing towards some big centerpiece he never reaches, and few of the two-liners he throws out along the way stick the landing. The one exception is the line “I know it’ll kill me when it’s over / I don’t wanna think about it,” which is just awkward and desperate enough to hit with the kind of gravitas that was probably intended.
[6]

Edward Okulicz: Creepy and demanding, this gets halfway to working just on the studied and unpleasantly believable performance Legend gives everything about his feels, for better or worse (mostly worse). It’s easy to feel his aches, but I don’t feel it enticing. The call-and-response after the chorus is saccharine piffle, and the pancake of Meaningful Noises Like Strings And Stuff are so weighty with self-importance that the souffle sinks.
[3]

Claire Biddles: I find this musically bland and lyrically creepy — the way the quiet wish to “love YOU now” quickly gives way to the amplified demand to “love ME now” reminds me of selfish dudebros who pretend to be nice guys to get girls in bed. 
[3]

Olivia Rafferty: A song that, if played acoustic, would probably sit comfortably amongst a great number of other meh Love Pop Anthems. The production lifts it: a gentle riff on a piano that sits on the right side of out-of-tune, a lot of space and ethereality with the reverb and arrangement. It floats, but only by a centimetre.
[6]