-- chief among them the bubbly Beyoncé duet 'Put It in a Love Song' -- so they play as ballads." Mikael Wood of Spin also chose the song as a highlight on the whole album. Gary Graff of Billboard magazine described the song as a "girl-power anthem". A writer of The New York Times felt that the song gives the album "bristle with a less regal impulse: flirting". The writer further commented that the song had a "quantitatively different energy, air-lifted from somewhere else". Nick Levine of Digital Spy said, "Beyoncé nearly manages to jolt Keys out of her midtempo comfort zone on 'Put In A Love Song', encouraging 'A' to show her sassy side over bootyshakin' Swiss Beatz rhythms." Ron Wynn of The City Paper noted that Keys matches Knowles "in force and attitude" on the song. Jim Farber of Daily News commented that Knowles' "gymnastic style" during the song, overshadowed Keys' vocals. Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave the song a mixed review stating that the song "is fun, though not entirely in sync with the record's lush, midtempo vibe." USA Today negatively stated "The only one that seems out of place is the club anthem 'Put It in a Love Song', a collaboration with Beyoncé that's catchy but ultimately underwhelming, considering the talents involved." James Reed of The Boston Globe stated "in high vamping mode, has already made its way to radio, but it’s a slip of a song, coasting on its contagious chorus and delivering little more." While reviewing The Element of Freedom, Slant Magazine's Matthew Cole gave a negative review for the song saying, "The upbeat numbers, which ought to stand out given their infrequency, incline toward the forgettable, though the cutesy club-ready duet with Beyoncé, 'Put It in a Love Song,' is especially embarrassing—not only because the song is bad, but also because Beyoncé delivers what is, by a rather large margin, the best vocal performance of the album's second half." That was somehow echoed by Tyler Lewis of PopMatters who said, "In fact, when she shares a song with Beyoncé—the contemporary queen of pointless bombast—Keys' weakness in this arena is startingly apparent. Beyoncé completely steals the song away and Beyoncé fans will love it, even though it’s a terrible song." Chart performance Due to the cancellation of the single, American radio pulled the song from their playlists, which resulted in the song failing