The Singles Jukebox

Rita, New York is hardly a million miles from Los Angeles.

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[5.22]

Mo Kim: As one of the three fans of flop ABC reality competition Boy Band, the best thing I can say about hostess/singer/model/entrepreneur/collective dream Rita Ora is that she’s down for anything: her industry-wise grit usually manifests as perfect amiability. Here she slots herself right between rubbery house beats and guitar strums before letting her voice be chopped up in the stutter-happy hook. It’s inoffensive and pleasant and something I’d probably listen to a couple more times, but it’s hard to shake off the feeling that it could be played…in most places.
[5]

Nortey Dowuona: Soft fingersnaps, a moving, pulsing bass, starlit piano keys and a surprisingly bouncy breakdown with popping drums buoys Rita’s cheerful yet anodyne voice.
[7]

Iain Mew: Sometimes a song is perfect and distinctive enough to launch a micro-genre in its wake, set up to either remain in its shadow or evolve into something else. Sometimes it takes a while to get to that definitive song, and it feels like a culmination and a point where everyone should now move on because they’re not going to top it. “Anywhere” doesn’t do much musically different from “It Ain’t Me” or Rita Ora’s own Avicii collaboration (both also Watt co-writes), but its perfect marriage of form and content gives it a totally different feel. Its warmth and gentle escapism make the most of Rita Ora’s restrained performance and the cut up drop comes off as a natural extension of its wishful sense of place, a return to when those could feel like heart-shaped fireworks.
[8]

Alfred Soto: As antiseptic as a dentist’s rubber glove, the electronic production epitomizes L.A. even if Rita Ora wishes she were anywhere else. 
[3]

Anjy Ou: The only reason I keep hitting play on new Rita Ora songs is that I keep wondering if she’s finally decided to distinguish herself as an artist. I continue to be disappointed. Too bad because this is actually a good song as written and produced. She’s just… so boring…
[4]

Stephen Eisermann: Does everyone remember when Nicole Scherzinger was doing her best to make her solo album be a thing here in the US? No? Well, Rita’s the new Nicole. She continues releasing generic, forgettable tracks in hopes of catching on, but just like Nicole, I’m not sure she ever will.
[4]

Will Adams: That coil spring bass is doing 80% of the work in making this Rita Ora’s most carefree, pleasurable singles in years (the vocal chops handle most of the remaining work). If it feels like she’s coasting on that, it’s only appropriate: the song takes her anywhere as she raises her arms and lets the wind rush past.
[7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Every time I hear this, I burst out laughing at the incredibly limp vocal cut-up. It tries so hard to contain a sense of movement and a semblance of intriguing melody, but the result is something so utterly stilted that I start to feel bad for Rita Ora. We all know how personality-deficient her music is, did the producers have to be so cruel?
[2]

Edward Okulicz: Am I the only person who hears the chorus and hears “The Road to Mandalay” by Robbie Williams? Yes? If not, almost certainly the only person who hears it and decides it’s a plus. Really nice chorus, effective blips and bleeps stopping it from being the dull chill-house nightmare the verses hint at, but the cut-up bit is amateur hour. Still, Ora’s eager to please professionalism was built for songs like this.
[7]