The Singles Jukebox

Is it too late now to say sorry-grateful-regretful-happy?

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[4.75]

Katherine St Asaph: In 2020, the Justin Bieber Conglomerate will be your only option for employment. Definitely your only option if you write about music. So, future job-seekers: Wanna arrange your soft palate and facial muscles and all that vocal plumbing to sound just like Bieber’s? Twenty times before bed, do this. Wanna produce a track just like this one? You’ll only ever need to have heard two things: one tropical house song and one DJ Mustard song. (We will also accept “Hold On, We’re Going Home” and a donk.) Wanna write lyrics about charming a girl? 2020 courtship is just like 2016’s; you need not try. (On “Baby” Justin offered to ply his way to love by buying “any ring”; now, she’s gotta share. Romantic!) Wanna be a member of Bieber’s PR team? Sorry, they’re not hiring. The job’s taken, inexplicably, by the entire world.
[3]

Alfred Soto: I’m the critic who insists that the little schemer moans “I just wantcha back on me!” in “Sorry” because Bieber’s that kind of guy, so this gormless return to insinuation plays like a practical joke on the audience. The chorus melody is too wistful for the blank words.
[4]

Anthony Easton: I like how casual this is — flirty, moving around in a lethargic circle, constructed as a set of questions which give no real reason to say no and no real reason to say yes: confident, but in the manner (and this is mannered) of a confidence game. I like feeling seduced, and I like fun for fun’s sake. 
[7]

Juana Giaimo: Justin Bieber never sounded as lonely as in “Company” — in a pensive mood, singing about a meaningless casual hookup — but it’s so hard to feel sorry for him. 
[7]

Brad Shoup: Finally, a Bieber single I can resist because of its form, not its smarm. The bass has muscle but no melodic flex. There’s no hooky synth filigree like on “What Do You Mean” or vocal tweak like “Sorry,” just Bieber and four producers with silly nicknames. When the beat hits, it lurches; when Justin pleads, he’s got no vibrato.
[4]

Cassy Gress: There is more than a hint of Justified-era Timberlake in the vocals, except where the Timberlake we know was groomed on harmonic and rhythmic precision, this is from the alternate universe where he fell off a cliff after the Mickey Mouse Club and never learned how to sing like he wasn’t lying in bed. That’s the point, I’m sure, but a side effect of not getting out of bed is a lack of passion. Make me want to be your company, bro! You might as well be just gesturing for me to make you a sandwich.
[4]

Will Adams: It’s like the diet version of Purpose‘s lead singles, with everything turned down to a humming 5, for better or worse. Bieber’s less repellent, his voice less strained, but muted are the sinewy vocal hooks and aggressive drum kits that made “Sorry” and “What Do You Mean” almost work. If the success of “Company” means not having to hear “Love Yourself” on radio every ten minutes, though, so be it.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: All the sounds and tics and tickles of “Sorry,” none of the urgency. I was really getting into Conflicted Bieber, and this one’s just a literal damp firework — it would be buzzing and bright but it’s not going to ignite, ever.
[4]