The Singles Jukebox

Uptempo, but not up in our estimations.

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[4.29]

Will Adams: Here is a Nice Thing that I can say about Shawn Mendes without snorting afterward: instead of dulling a romantic encounter to its most banal in the name of specificity, he heightens its intensity to the appropriate level for pop. Unfortunately, he brings the same baggage that’s tough to listen to, even when it’s undergirded by an appealing dance/rock hybrid that’s long been forgotten.
[5]

Katie Gill: Glad to see that Shawn Mendes still remains an obnoxious, unlikeable shit! Somebody really needs to teach Mendes the concept of the I-message. For a song about this crazy, wild, uninhibited girl, I once again learn more about Mendes than the actual girl he’s singing about.
[3]

Alfred Soto: I can’t resist the snapping acoustic guitar and the lead, and he knows it — he’s counting on critics to give him credit commensurate with his meticulously styled hair.  But God gave him a larynx swathed in cotton candy. When he boasts that nothing’s holding him back, he could be referring to doing cannonballs. 
[5]

Ryo Miyauchi: From just how overboard he cracks his voice come the chorus, it’s probably better for everyone’s sake if Shawn Mendes keeps at least some of that frustration to himself.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: He really likes that “trop house with guitar on top” schtick, doesn’t he? Positive: at least this one’s uptempo. Negative: it basically sounds like B-list Bieber.
[4]

Megan Harrington: I was reading Yelp reviews in anticipation of Mother’s Day and came across one that described a diner’s hesitation to order chicken and waffles for fear that the chicken would be tenders style. She went ahead with it and though the chicken wasn’t tenders it was too bland for her to eat. I’ve been thinking about this scene a lot since. The deeper I get the less it makes sense and I feel like I have to go to this place, I have to order the chicken and waffles. I turn the images over and over in my head, chicken tenders on a bed of nuked eggo waffles, until they’re no longer images at all but “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” by Shawn Mendes. 
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: OK, but can there be?
[3]