 Fraser McAlpine of BBC Music stated that he thought the song was not as good as " Toxic " by Britney Spears , but was incredibly similar . After dubbing it a weaker version of " Toxic " , he said , " And that just leaves us here with a song [ ' Poison ' ] which is all stomp and huff , a dramatic bang of a thing , which seeks to drag all the bad girls to the dancefloor so they can holler their evil intentions to into the faces of nervous men . It 's a song which makes the most of Nicole 's unwholesome sexiness – as opposed to wholesome , you understand , I 'm not saying there 's anything gross about her – and has drama and fury on its side . " Nick Levine of Digital Spy agreed saying that " Scherzinger has managed to bag herself a banger of an ( ahem ) debut single " . He described the song 's busy production as " having a whiff of the <unk> " <unk> " that is a " racket in the best possible way " . Levine also praised Scherzinger for her conviction on the song , awarding it five out of five stars . He gave " Poison " a better reception than he awarded Scherzinger 's previous attempt , " Baby Love " ( 2007 ) , which he only awarded three out of five stars , stating that it was the wrong single to launch the career of a world @-@ class superstar . 
