to continue in lines such as "Everytime I try to fly I fall / Without my wings I feel so small". Jennifer Vineyard of MTV compared the song lyrically to another ballad from In the Zone, "Shadow", since they both speak "about how reminders of a lover can still linger after he's gone." During an interview with Jennifer Vineyard of MTV, Spears said about "Everytime", "It's about heartbreak, it's about your first love, your first true love. That's something all people can relate to, because you all have that first love that you think you're going to be with the rest of your life." When asked if "Everytime" was about Timberlake during an interview with Diane Sawyer in PrimeTime, she responded "I'll let the song speak for itself." Critical reception "Everytime" received widespread acclaim from music critics, who complimented its lyrical content and Spears' breathy vocals, while others deemed it a standout track on In the Zone. Gavin Mueller of Stylus Magazine considered "Everytime" to be the best track on In the Zone, explaining "it is just a spare piano ballad, simple yet effectively fragile". Ali Fenwick of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter complimented Spears' songwriting and added the song "shows a glimmer of the talent that hides behind the robotic, synthed-out vocals on the rest of the album". Christy Lemire of MSNBC called it "actually a pretty tune" and named it the best ballad in Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. Jason Shawhan of About.com said "Everytime" "screams Single!". For Daniel Megarry from Gay Times, it's "one of the most stunningly heartbreaking songs of all time". Nayer Nissim, from Pink News, wrote that "despite some limp efforts scattered around her albums, Britney can actually do some utterly compelling and heartbreaking ballads, and this is her very best. Beautiful, disarming, and emotionally raw". Digital Spy's Alim Kheraj praised its "lullaby-like production, wonderfully simple piano riff and confessional lyrics". For Alex Macpherson from The Guardian, it's one of the best examples of Spears' "distressing vulnerability" as well as her fifth best song; "one of Britney's oddest curveballs was following the gleaming banger 'Toxic', with its polar opposite. [...] ['Everytime'] is a rare pop hit that seizes attention by shrinking further away". Spence D. of IGN said the song "continues to mine the Zone turf and unleashes what is ostensibly Britney's first mature ballad, at least in terms of being musically staid and stripped of