Reception
Billboard reviewer Ken Tucker, who gave I'll Stay Me a favorable review for its "unapologetically country" sound, described the song as a "down-home romper". Allmusic critic Thom Jurek referred to it as "line-dance swagger" that was "calculating" but "execute nearly flawlessly".
Brady Vercher of The 9513, however, gave the song a "thumbs down" review, describing it as "mindlessly list anything that could be superficially associated with being a country man". He also thought that the song posed a risk of typecasting Bryan as "the corporate manufactured country boy image" by following so closely on his debut single "All My Friends Say". Michael Sudhalter of Country Standard Time also thought unfavorably of the song, describing it as being "chock full of country clichés", although he called it "the only misstep" on the album.
Read more about this topic: Country Man
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
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“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
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“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)