The Singles Jukebox

The ballads go on. Does our patience?

[Video][Website]
[5.22]

Patrick St. Michel: In which Lykke Li spends nearly four minutes proving the title wrong.
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: Then sing like it. God, Wounded Rhymes was one of my favorite albums of 2011, and I’m even willing to accept that Lykke Li’s new album might be, oh, the Dynamite to Youth Novels‘ Memories of a Colour, but this is the exact worst possible intersection of “I don’t want to be a pop star” and “produced by Greg Kurstin.”
[2]

Crystal Leww: Lykke Li wants you to take her seriously as a singer-songwriter rather than a pop star on this new album, implying that there is something wrong with being a pop star. Unfortunately for her, the thing about sad-dudes-with-guitars music is that it’s boring and so is this. We get it; you’ve repeated the title to this song several times throughout but maybe if you want us to love you like you’re not made of stone, act like you have a personality that isn’t as boring as rocks.
[3]

Scott Mildenhall: Whoa, Nelly! Nelly Furtado that is, and an atonal one too. “Flames to dust; lovers to friends; why do all good things come to an end” — now that is a lyric, and it’s the sort of thing ready to burst out of this, but Li renders the good lines unintelligible. Maybe when she gets it out of demo form it might have more to offer.
[4]

Brad Shoup: One-third Disney ballad, two-thirds fake lo-fi dirge. The strumming is muffled, Li comes off harsh, and there’s no low-end to justify any of it. It does boast a sharply defined melody that glides across the emotional spectrum before crumbling to the ground. 
[7]

Alfred Soto: Li’s cracked vocal has to work itself into your soul if you’re going to do more than not mind it. Melodically it’s thin, which is hell on her charm.
[4]

Megan Harrington: Lykke Li desperately needed to distinguish herself from a handful of other singers pursuing the same maximalist, tropical pop sound (most significantly Santigold, with whom she was practically interchangeable). That “Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone” is sincere and vulnerable enough to choke me up is a bonus, the song’s real achievement is paving a new lane for Lykke Li to cruise. 
[8]

Iain Mew: On Wounded Rhymes, the combination of weathered production aesthetic and straining vocals was a big part of making the emotions of Lykke Li’s songs hit deep. Those songs were strong and hooky enough to have appealed regardless, though, and not just the one turned into a Europe-conquering dance smash. “Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone” hardens the grim aesthetic at the expense of the song, with dull results — all wound and no rhyme.
[4]

Juana Giaimo: Just as Wounded Rhymes‘ advance track “Get Some” showed that the shy girl from Youth Novels had been replaced by a strong provocative woman, “Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone” shows we’ll get to know Lykke Li’s most vulnerable side on I Never Learn. The lo-fi production makes this beautiful sad ballad seems like an old recording lost a long time ago. If there is something that we learn from this new song, it’s exactly that she isn’t made of stone.
[7]