Critical Reception
"Call on Me" garnered mixed reviews from music critics. Andy Kellman of Allmusic and Bill Lamb of About.com both picked "With U" as one of the album's best songs. In a separated review, Bill Lamb gave the song 3 out of 5 stars, writing the song "goes down easy," is "polished," and has "smooth vocals," and that it has "elegant sheen." However, he noted that "it lacks a significant hook" and that it is "too safe." Jon Pareles of New York Times called it a "tinkly-twinkly tune," while Thomas Inskeep of Stylus Magazine named it " a lovely little pillow of a midtempo ballad, with Janet singing off Nelly (who’s also singing, which he arguably does better than he raps)." Tammy La Gorce of Amazon.com described it as a "easy-beezy standout." Jeevan Panesar of The Situation picked the song as one of the "Top Three Tracks", praising "its playful melody, easy listening and warm energy," but ultimately, calling it "easily forgettable."
However, the song received a handful of mixed and, a few, negative reviews. Tracy E. Hopkins of Barnes & Nobles wrote that the song "won't wow too many fans with its nursery rhyme-like." Spence D. of IGN was mixed, writing, "The obligatory star power guest shot occurs with 'Call On Me' featuring Nelly. Janet goes for her delicate wisp, but it sounds as if she's trying hard to maintain the crispness, straining to keep from cracking. Nelly delivers a slippery grind, making this also the obligatory 'time to get your sex on' number." Don Baiocchi of Blogcritics was mixed, writing that "to kick off a comeback with the mediocre 'Call On Me,' a duet where she actually makes Nelly sing, is just plain wrong. 'Call on Me' wasn't the way to do that." He also noted that "details like the tinny hand claps in 'Call On Me' are bizarre missteps." Evan Serpick of Rolling Stone wrote that "it shamelessly re-creates 'Dilemma,' the St. Louis rapper's collaboration with Kelly Rowland." Johnny Loftus of Metro Times was also negative, writing that the song "falls flat."
Read more about this topic: Call On Me (Janet Jackson Song)
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or reception:
“I know that I will always be expected to have extra insight into black texts—especially texts by black women. A working-class Jewish woman from Brooklyn could become an expert on Shakespeare or Baudelaire, my students seemed to believe, if she mastered the language, the texts, and the critical literature. But they would not grant that a middle-class white man could ever be a trusted authority on Toni Morrison.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American scholar and educator. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B2 (July 27, 1994)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)