 Upon its release , " Not Myself Tonight " received mixed critical reception . Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic picked " Not Myself Tonight " as one of the highlights from Bionic , while Michael Menachem from Billboard complimented Aguilera 's vocal delivery and suggested that the track proved that " the current dance @-@ pop craze would be incomplete without [ Aguilera ] " . Digital Spy editor Nick Levine gave the single a four out of five stars rating , writing that " on first listen , it feels a bit too ordinary to be trailing such a potentially audacious long @-@ player . However , after a few spins it becomes clear that this is far from a flop " . Sarah @-@ Louise James from the UK Daily Star lauded the musical style of " Not Myself Tonight " but opined that it was overshadowed by the accompanying S & M @-@ inspired music video . On a negative side , Mesfin Fekadu from The Boston Globe mockingly described the single as " mediocre at best . " 
