Critical Reception
The song received generally mixed reviews from critics. Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly responded to the new additions of the compilation saying, "The singer has banished melisma and belting from these electronic confections, and her chops sound just as hot set on simmer." Nick Levine from Digital Spy called the song a "welcome change" from Aguilera's 2006 Back to Basics album, but stated "it isn't one of Christina's boldest singles". Bill Lamb from About.com awarded the track three stars. He noted Aguilera's dance-inspired effort, at a time of dance dominance in the industry, negatively and stated that "the catchy electro-pop vibe isn't enough to make it one of her more memorable efforts." Sal Cinquemani from Slant magazine, like Lamb, commented on the possibly outdated dance theme. Responding to the new additions of the record including "Keeps Gettin' Better", he noted: "Not exactly what one would call original, but if it's true the singer's next studio album will reprise this electro-pop sound, Aguilera deserves credit for refusing to play it safe." Gavin Martin from The Mirror gave a mixed response as he said "Nothing dates as quickly as pop that dares to call itself futuristic". Martin awarded the song 3/5 and concluded with "It's not that this new number from the forthcoming Greatest Hits set is bad – but it's a whole lot more routine than it pretends to be."
Read more about this topic: Keeps Gettin' Better
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)