The Singles Jukebox

And that’s one hand over the camera, and the other one in our ears.

[Video]
[2.67]

Alfred Soto: The beat goes clippety-clop and the English basic enough to be understood by global festival audiences — and it has a whistle! 
[3]

Iain Mew: It’s telling that the cover art is an impression of a small child’s rainbow drawing. It’s not the tropical Etch-a-Sketch “Spending All My Time” drop or the Swedish house recycle bin melody that make “Ellie” so unbearable. It’s not even the bloody whistling. It’s the tone of forced naivety which Jake Reese adopts, as if the big feelings can only possibly be filtered through childlike wonder. It’s a poor excuse for the woman-is-mystery elements of the lyrics, but the childishness coupled with “I would do anything for your love” and especially “I like the way you move” comes off as not just Lukas Graham cynical, but creepy. And that’s before even seeing the video.
[1]

Scott Mildenhall: Just because a song isn’t as detailed as Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Clair” that is not to say it has merely cynically been given a video and cover art that would suggest it is about a child in the face of lyrics that are at least ambiguous about that possibility. (No, because it turns out Ellie really is Regi’s daughter.) And no doubt, she probably loves stuff that vaguely conjures up “Wake Me Up” — everyone does. But if you’re really going to write a sweet song about the wonder of familial youth, follow Gilbert’s lead and make it about the inexorable creep of your own mortality.
[5]

Ramzi Awn: I’m not sure “Ellie” would make the cut for a Hallmark original movie. Actually, I’m sure it wouldn’t. Who knew a whistle could be so foreboding. Wow, and there’s a remix. I hope Ellie knows better.   
[1]

Will Adams: I can’t decide what’s worse: the idea that the Ellie in question is Goulding, thereby following in a tradition of dudes salivating over female pop stars in song, or an actual child. (Trick question: it’s actually Jake Reese’s dead-eyed cheer amidst the flimsy, dated production.)
[2]

Edward Okulicz: On the one hand, I can’t help but admire the total lack of cool, and the total lack of intention towards cool that so many people must have in order to dance to this and lap up the wonder its creators have pumped in, like jam filling in a sickly doughnut. Not using that to refer to the whistling, either. Europeans gonna Europe, and as a recent transplant to the continent, I see the appeal of everything here. On the other hand, doughnuts are basically poison and so is this.
[4]