 Pitchfork Media added to the unfavourable reviews , stating of will.i.am , " He takes Macca off ' The Girl Is Mine ' but decides it can 't work without someone sounding like an idiot and steps manfully in himself . " The Times stated that whoever thought it was a good idea for will.i.am to participate in the song ought to be " locked in a windowless cell with nothing but those songs on a continuous loop " . PopMatters , however , praised Thriller 25 and the remix of " The Girl Is Mine " . They wrote , " Any album good enough to make you forgive ( although maybe not forget ) a song as bad as the Paul McCartney duet ' The Girl is Mine ' has got to be damn good . " They added that will.i.am had put a " breezy spin " on the track and that the song 's omission of McCartney did not suffer because of it . 
