Responses
The single received generally favorable reviews from fans and critics.
- Chuck Taylor of Billboard Magazine depicted "Break Anotha", which has drawn 76,000 streams on the day it premiered on "AOL First Listen", as "a lightning rod of rock'n'funk, meshing busy, skittish production and enough tempo stops and starts to build one clever three-minute jam", as well as channeling Justin Timberlake "with fluffed harmonic layers and falsetto as he sings a rapid-fire lyric about a playa". He felt that "this runner-up is poised to win the big prize: song is a bull's-eye, the stylish 26-year-old has the looks of a teen idol, and clearly, AI fever has never been more prominent" and "the future looks mighty bright for full-length Audio Day Dream".
- Ken Barnes of USA Today commented that the song "sounds like a clever maximizing of Blake's musical inclinations in a contemporary pop context" and "seems to be aimed straight at the Justin Timberlake market, and - with a properly warm radio reception - it could hit the jackpot".
- Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly gave the single rave review, thought that it "sounds like it could easily hold its own on Billboard Hot 100", "not just a 'good for an Idol graduate' kind of single, but instead the kind of track I'd spend money to download" and predicted that it will be a "big hit".
- Blender Magazine believed that the single "lives up to the singer's daring reality TV persona" and "is semi-ridiculous, hyperactive and totally different from your typical Idol fare", giving a rating of 3/5.
- Bill Lamb from About.com thought that while "beatboxing is part of the mix", "Blake's vocals are front and center in the instantly funky mix" and he has "really enjoyed listening to 'Break Anotha'", although he was disappointed by the Audio Day Dream cover design.
"Break Anotha" has garnered reviews from Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Detroit News and Boston Herald as well. While the reviewers got a vibe of Justin Timberlake from it, they all predicted that "Break Anotha" will be a successful single. The Detroit News even went further, writing that Lewis, with "one of the most exciting singles of the year", "will blow Sparks out of the water, if not in first week sales then in three months' time". However this prediction proved highly incorrect, since as of February 2008 (a full three months after the song's release) "Break Anotha" failed to enter the Hot 100, and failed to reach 100,000 in digital sales, while Sparks' first single "Tattoo" reached the top ten of the Hot 100 and has sold over 1,900,000 in digital sales to date.
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