"No More 'I Love You's'" is a song written by British musicians David Freeman and Joseph Hughes and recorded by them as the Lover Speaks.

"[1] The song was first demoed on a portastudio during a rehearsal studio session, with Robert Farrell on guitar, Barry Gilbert on keyboards and Pete King on drums.

[1] It was then demoed again at Pathway Studios in August 1985, with Farrell on guitar, Ian Thomas on drums and Hughes' ex-girlfriend, singer June Miles-Kingston, on backing vocals.

[4] Joseph Hughes told Record Mirror in 1986 that the duo wanted to "create a bit of mystery" with the video and give it a "dark, dreamy quality".

[13] Upon its release, the Bury Free Press awarded the single a 7 out of 10 rating and described it as an "intriguing piece of summer pop with a swaying rhythm and catchy back-up".

[14] John Lee of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner called the song both "a totally over-the-top heartbreak ballad which demands to be a monstrous hit" and a "paced-up love anthem [which] is the Walker Brothers in 1986 – big, bold and brilliant".

[15] James Belsey of the Bristol Evening Post named it "single of the week" and described it as a "gloriously over-the-top, over-romantic, over-rich song and production with a wildly hummable hook".

[17] In the US, Billboard listed the single under "new and noteworthy" and wrote, "A dreamy, eerie, British beat ballad that carries rock overstatement to splendid heights and misses no Spectorian trick; towering walls of sound.

"[18] Cash Box considered it a "captivating debut" which has a "good shot at CHR" with its "hooky female refrain and powerful lead vocal".

"[20] Betty Page of Record Mirror named it one of the "singles of the week" and praised it as an "epic pop song" which "sounds like Phil Spector-meets-Lord Byron in Tamla Motown".

She stated, "Pay attention this time around to David Freeman's exquisite wordplay, wistful voice and playful girly backing vocals and be moved.

"[21] Jonathan Romney of NME described the "deconstructive tearjerker" as "a colossal, nay Wagnerian, record" on which "very weird chipmunk vocals sing the most contorted hook in history".

"[22] John Lee, reviewing again for the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, applauded the reissue, noting it would have been a "criminal waste of a haunting, magnificent, Walker Brothers-esque big ballad".

[23] In a retrospective review of The Lover Speaks, Michael Sutton of AllMusic praised the song as "stylishly crafted, soulful pop" which is "elevated by Freeman's booming voice" and also noted the "soaring, heartbreaking chorus".

[25] Production Other Scottish singer and songwriter Annie Lennox covered "No More 'I Love You's'" and released as the lead single from her second studio album, Medusa (1995), in February 1995 by Arista Records.

In a 1995 article she wrote for The Independent, Lennox stated why she chose to record her own version of the song: "The Lover Speaks was a group formed by a man called David Freeman.

[42] It also generated some renewed interest in the Lover Speaks, which in turn prompted Freeman to independently release some of his solo material across six albums in 1996.

[39] She searched out an abandoned music hall in London and created a turn-of-the-century bordello modeled after paintings by Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

[39] In the video, Lennox appears as a courtesan surrounded by different characters, such as male travesti ballerinos (one of whom is played by actor Jake Canuso), in a homage to Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.

[47] Larry Flick from Billboard found that "she picks up right where she left off floating fluttering phrases over a sea of atmospheric synths and strings that are propelled by a subtle, shuffling beat."

[53] Chuck Campbell from Knoxville News Sentinel felt the song is using "a sweeping arrangement" a la "Why", remarking that the singer "draws on her gift of smirking melancholy.

"[54] In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton stated, that it's "her own beautifully-rendered and faithful version of one of the great long-lost classics of British pop.

"[55] Pan-European magazine Music & Media concluded with that "it's that contrast between the superbly sophisticated cover of the Lover Speaks' 1986 soul hit and the weird intermezzo of talking and hysterical laughing that makes it so irresistible."

An editor, Stephen Sears, wrote that the song "is a linguist's delight – 'changes are shifting outside the words' – with a lyric about the verbal clues of a fading love affair."

She made subtle tweaks to the original lyrics and added a bizarre, spoken middle eight in which she assumes a child's voice, gushing, "There are monsters outside!"