This Might Be This Summer's Earworm

'I Don't Care' features Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran, and critics like it
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 10, 2019 9:26 AM CDT

Ever felt socially awkward at a soiree? What the Guardian calls the "most surefire pop hit of the year," featuring "two seismic stars, one super-producer, and a chorus that only leaves your head after surgery," may speak to you. The stars: Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber. The song: "I Don't Care," uploaded Thursday to YouTube by Sheeran, in what USA Today says is the duo's first musical teaming-up in four years. The "super-producer" mentioned is Max Martin, best known for bringing the best of the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and Britney Spears to the masses. The crux of the song and the Sheeran-Biebs banter is that they're at a crowded party but feeling isolated, with Bieber at one point crooning, "With all these people all around / I'm crippled with anxiety."

What saves them both is that they're at said party with their romantic others, who offer them comfort. At Rolling Stone, Althea Legaspi calls the song "buoyant," while Stephen Thompson at NPR commands everyone to "kneel before the earworm." "I am here to tell you that you will hear 'I Don't Care' approximately one billion times—if not on the radio, then in retail stores, out of other people's car windows, and on the wind itself, until you die," Thompson writes. Bieber has been open about his own mental health struggles, recently taking a break to deal with some of his issues. Both Sheeran and Bieber teased the song before its release on their social media pages with funny pics and cryptic countdowns. (More Ed Sheeran stories.)

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