The Singles Jukebox

And finally, from the soundtrack to Alice: Through the Looking Glass, “Just Like A Pill Fire”…

[Video][Website]
[3.78]

Scott Mildenhall: Sixteen years deep into her time at pop’s top table, P!nk’s trademark exceptionalism looks a bit like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Most girls don’t manage that longevity; not many people could be like that, and so she definitely is different, but on this occasion still remarkably familiar. “Just Like Fire” is the midpoint between “Raise Your Glass”, “Perfect” and “Are We All We Are”, and that mix of semi-inclusive reassurance and unobtrusive soft rock seems right for a family adventure film about, but she’s capable of much more memorable.
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: This isn’t a song, it’s a clip reel of radio formats.
[2]

Thomas Inskeep: Could this be more focus-grouped for maximum Adult Top 40 saturation and domination? Acoustic guitar, subtle electronic beats, “strong woman” narrative, and I loathe pretty much every element of it. 
[2]

Brad Shoup: A dustsweeping alt-rock acoustic progression paired with one bluesy vocal turnaround and what feels like thirty shouty folk-pop collectives. Was “True Love” really almost three years ago?
[4]

Mark Sinker: p!nk remains punk [insert bitter humpty dumpty emoji here]
[6]

Alfred Soto: P!nk’s last few singles have been straight fire, and when she announces “I want it all, mmhmm” over folk guitar strums she’s dousing herself with gasoline. This time the subject is herself: where she’s been, where she’s going. Not much about where she is, though, which may indicate a problem; I get suspicious when fame becomes a star’s muse.
[7]

Cassy Gress: This barely sounds like P!nk at all — where is that signature rasp? Did she toss this off in an afternoon? Why is there that nearly pentatonic run in the choruses, “No one can be just like me anyway,” where she has to go into her falsetto for notes that are normally not in her range?  Who came up with that terrible, terrible clippy “We can get em running” crap? What on earth made her or anyone think that the half-hearted “uh-huh”s served any useful purpose? And the rap, oh my god. There is no fire in her voice anywhere in this; it’s like the ten worst movie tie-in songs of the last 20 years amalgamated into one.
[0]

Will Adams: P!nk was always able to distinguish herself from her pop contemporaries through the sheer power of her voice, unapologetically scratchy and forceful. So it’s perplexing why it’s downplayed so much on “Just Like Fire,” between the shouty backing vox and the awful rap, which sounds like she had memorized it 20 minutes before recording. “No one can be just like me anyway” would be a positive in another context, but not here.
[4]

Edward Okulicz: Pink’s elevated some ho-hum material in the past with her surprisingly big voice, unerring pop instincts and rock-star confidence. When any of those are absent, the whole package falls apart: Pink sounds subdued, the “rap” bit is ill-advised and her attitude is if not tamed then mild by choice. I suspect this will be big based on name alone, but I doubt it’s what a lot of people want in the first single from a Pink album.
[4]