The Singles Jukebox

In which we share our Semisonic memories…

[Video][Website]
[5.50]

Edward Okulicz: Dan Wilson helped the Dixie Chicks metamorphose into a great rock band on Taking The Long Way, and here he takes Maines, gives her one of his old songs, and turns her into Aimee Mann (this reminds me of “Lost in Space” in places) with wailing capacity. Which is all very well and good, but it’s not the most effective use of Maines’ talents and if the idea was to make her a mainstream rock artist then the job was already done. Her voice is still impressive but the song’s too small for it — it feels like an artistic retreat because Maines once grew her fanbase with bravery, cheek and sticking to her guns. Of course given its creators, it’s perfectly sung and produced which counts for something.
[6]

Alfred Soto: A typical newly solo indulgence: disinterest in length, a putative manifesto written for and sung in the singer’s private argot, the absence of colleagues who could have sharpened this thing.
[4]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: So the Dixies vocalist covered a song by the Semisonic guy and turned it into a Sharon van Etten song? Where do I sign up?
[7]

Brad Shoup: I was all about Dan Wilson in high school: believe that. His tremulous tenor, his way with turnarounds and middle eights and experimental-for-AAA sonic touches… I practically had to sneak “DND” past my parents, such was my evangelical situation and my need for songwriting chops. Some tunes are written, some must be crafted. Free Life came too late for me, though. It’s a total neo-Wounded Bird deal: overlong pop-rock polished by pros. Cause-célèbre context aside (there’s a Spotify commentary if you wish), this plays like a love note from one insider to another. The Feeling Strangely Fine organ joins, Wilson’s sprightly tempo and ’70s sensibility recedes. This is a sac bunt from a pop slugger.
[5]

Patrick St. Michel: A little heavy-handed, but Maines sells it so well it doesn’t even matter.
[7]

Ian Mathers: I’m not sure how I feel about the emphasis on “free” in “free life” (although thankfully the rest of the lyrics read to me at least as being more about free from oppression rather than necessarily free from responsibility) but Maines remembers something a lot of her contemporaries seem to forget, which is that if you make the song soar that kind of concern can seem decidedly secondary.
[7]

Josh Langhoff: There’s a handful of Dan Wilson songs worth enjoying and admiring — “Chemistry,” “Home,” even a couple Grobans — but this ain’t one of ‘em. Too linear, too writerly, nothing that qualifies as catchy, so Maines is forced to simply unleash her awesome wail on the chorus, as though wailing could bend this straight line of melody into a hook.
[3]

Anthony Easton: Maines has a voice, and she maintains it — I have always thought she was more interesting than her band mates, and the slight chop of the vocals is a good choice; even the lyrics have a kind of prophetic power. I mean it’s not Richard Harris doing “The Hive,” but it does what it needs to do until near the end where she blows up the whole mess via over-effort. 
[5]