The Singles Jukebox

Your editor went to school with The Veronicas, so they’ve got that in their favour at least.

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[5.09]Claire Biddles: I fall in love with people on dancefloors every weekend; interchangeable bodies with one tiny thing that distinguishes them from all the anonymous others — the twist of a forearm, the reflection of a green spotlight on pink lips, the way a curl falls over heavy eyelashes. It’s the same with lovesick disco — “In My Blood” is just like the rest, but I fall in love when The Veronicas confess to feeling “religion with you on the floor”.
[7]

Hannah Jocelyn: “Feel the needle on my 45,” unfocused references to religion, and random lines about getting high turn me off almost immediately. It’s honestly crazy how boring “In My Blood” is too, misguided edginess aside; “Untouched” remains an exhilarating song nearly 10 years on, and has aged so well it would easily compete with, let’s say, CHVRCHES or Chairlift with few instrumental changes. It’s probably unfair to hold them to that standard, especially as they’ve had other hits since then, but if they’re not even gonna try, they should probably take a page from people like Peter Svensson (who has a similarly eternal song in “Lovefool”) and start doing some behind-the-scenes writing instead of releasing music dated on arrival.
[3]

Alfred Soto: I hear “in my blight” not “my blood,” for which I blame the rote, depressing dance pop production, blighted — heh — by an air horn that Mike Posner lent them in Ibiza.
[2]

Juana Giaimo: “In My Blood” falls short on either being a dance song or being deep. The drop is rather quiet and their vocals are too cold to be singing about a sudden passionate connection — not to mention that accumulating metaphors doesn’t mean your lyrics are more intense. Maybe the place that best suits this song is a trendy clothes shop.
[6]

Cassy Gress: This track was intended to evoke the endless absorption of love at first sight. My quibbles with calling it “love at first sight” aside, I don’t think this really does. Lyrically it hits the right spots, but the sound doesn’t quite soar and swoon and shake the way overpowering crushes do. What it actually sounds a lot more like is the end of the grieving process that comes from finding out that your all-consuming crush is already with someone else.
[5]

Peter Ryan: A pretty capable dance pop track without much to ingratiate — too much clatter to be fashionable, lyrically and vocally too cool to approximate the lust they’re going for, and more suitable for sedate bobbing-along-while-ordering-another-drink than any kind of energetic movement. But it doesn’t really offend either, and achieves earworm status with ruthless efficiency. If it’s disappointing, it’s only because even in their current chameleonic career phase they’ve proven they don’t have to be this anonymous.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: Half an effectively desirous dance pop song, but the hook is a monotony; a snatch of one syllable repeated over warmed-over sounds from last season. Not that The Veronicas’ thing is being cutting edge, “4eva” and “Untouched” worked for being superior examples of their type, not the first such examples, but dehumanising them and devolving their voices and writing down to “blood uh uh uh uh uh uh” is missing the point somewhat when there’s half a good Sia/Guetta chorus in there.
[6]

William John: The previous Veronicas lead single, “You Ruin Me“, was impossibly maudlin dirge and a #1 Australian hit. This time, the chart position has stayed the same, but the listlessness has been replaced by electric desire. “In My Blood” could be read two ways: as either the desperate exegesis of a discerning someone whose lover needs persuasion, or as a chronicle of infatuation fueled by adrenaline, of two bodies finding their way to each other in a way that’s dramatic yet inexorable. Either way, the line about finding religion on the floor is a wonderfully histrionic distillation of lust. The quasi-Balearic arrangement is on trend without being on the nose, and the drums that kick in midway through the first chorus are irresistible.
[9]

Frank Kogan: Voice rises gratifyingly to a refracting electric-dismemberment-fan whine, dividing the night into segments, any one of which is sufficient to determine intensity of affection. Segment presumably can then be extended, perhaps to eternity.
[7]

Will Adams: Title justification is releasing a fantastic song like “Cruel” as your third single. “In My Blood” is bloodless, letting the Origliasso twins flatline over third-rate house music. Are we done with chopped vocal hooks yet?
[3]

Katherine St Asaph: The slow sapping of life and originality from The Veronicas continues; in 2016 this is done via EDM. At least “You Ruin Me” fit its title.
[3]