Just Go (album)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(68/100)[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Billboard	(favorable)[6]
Entertainment Weekly	C+[7]
The Guardian	[8]
New York Times	(favorable)[9]
The Observer	(unfavorable)[10]
People	[11]
The Times	[12]
Vibe	[5]

Upon release, Just Go received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 68 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[5] Allmusic editor Andy Kellman wrote that "introducing a 60-year-old artist to a younger audience with new material is asking for a lot, but Richie's devoted fanbase will find plenty to like. Just Go, slightly more so than [previous album] Coming Home, tends to be a happy (and comforting) medium between Richie's familiar approach and contemporary R&B."[1] Caroline Sullivan, writing for The Guardian, remarked that Just Go "finds Richie in reliably smooth voice, ruminating placidly about love. Fair enough; that's what he's for, and he's game enough to couch it [...] He's rarely sounded so unruffled. What would it be like if he let go a bit?"[8]

New York Times journalist Nate Chinen felt that while Just Go came across like "a textbook adult-contemporary album, it also lends credible emotional footing to the songs. It’s one reason that Mr. Richie doesn’t sound out of his element singing on tracks provided by contemporary R&B hit makers, complete with up-to-the-minute production."[9] People critics Chuck Arnold and Joey Bartolomeo wrote that Akon, The-Dream and Stargate "put a fresh but familiar spin on Richie’s sound. Still, the old guy falls into a bit of a midtempo rut."[11] Similarly, Entertainment Weekly critic Leah Greenblatt found that Richie's collaborators "may be top dogs on their own territory, but they don’t have much on the old tricks of the Commodore-turned-1980s solo star. On his ninth studio album, undifferentiated swaths of midtempo digital groove leave one longing for the (relative) analog authenticity of vintage Lionel."[7]

In the United States, Just Go debuted at number 24 on the US Billboard 200 and number nine on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.[13] It became Richie's fifth top ten entry on the latter chart and sold 95,000 copies in the US.[13] In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number 10 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), indicating sales in excess of 60,000 copies.[14]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an co-producer

The South-Korean girl band 2NE1 had a similar song "I Don't Care" akin to Lionel's "Just Go" released July 2009. It is currently being investigated by Universal Music Group.[25]

• Lionel Richie official site
• Just Go at Allmusic
• Just Go at Metacritic