Archive for July, 2007
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
A spiritual ballad that absolutely soars. Borrowing the title from his wife Denise’s new book about their marriage, and co-written with her to boot, this is a classic country gospel song that you rarely hear a superstar of his stature perform, let alone write. This is Dolly Parton good, and if you know her work in this vein, you know just how high that praise is. An unexpected gift from a man who is, in my humble opinion, the greatest male country star of his generation.
Grade: A+
Listen: It’s All About Him
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
She’s a little older, and a little wiser, this Carrie Underwood. Surfacing as a co-writer on the lead single from her mega-anticipated sophomore set, she’s singing about the importance of loving one another, and not getting lost in the mundane daily trials that can seem so big at the time.
It’s a solid song, and she sings it beautifully, though I can’t help being a little concerned by the busy production and the big notes towards the end. It’s not painful to listen to like some of Martina McBride’s recent power ballads, because Underwood’s voice is big enough to carry it. But the string section and the glory notes seem like too many bells and whistles. She needs sparser production that gives subtle support to her voice, rather than push against it.
Hopefully, the album will be balanced and have those subtle moments, and this is the big showcase number or something. It’s a darn good single and it’s already stuck in my head, so I’m sure it’s full speed ahead for the Carrie Underwood juggernaut. Still, I can’t help but wish she’ll release an acoustic version as a download bonus. She’s one of the few vocalists we have that doesn’t need a drop of production polish to shine.
Grade: B+
Listen: So Small
Buy: So Small
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
The most unintentionally funny record of the year. Indeed, perhaps of the decade. If I thought they actually understood the meaning of the song, I’d accuse them of hubris. But they seem about as aware of the song’s intent as Pat Boone was when he sang “Tutti Frutti.” Listen all the way through so you can hear the “shoo-be-doo-wops” they throw in towards the end.
A hilarious, foolish disaster that reveals just how vacuous and shallow a band they are. Somewhere in heaven, John Lennon is laughing his ass off.
Grade: F
Listen: Revolution
Buy: Revolution
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
So, here it is. The single that Adkins couldn’t wait to get out, so much that he gave up on the stellar “I Wanna Feel Something.” Was it worth it? Well, given that radio probably wasn’t going to come around anyway, this hilarious ego romp might get him the chart action that he’s looking for. It’s not as substantive as the ballad he killed for it, of course, but that’s comparing apples to oranges. This is far better than his novelty hit “Swing”. I smiled the whole way through.
Grade: B+
Listen: I Got My Game On
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
He remains one of the genre’s finest male vocalists, a true honky-tonk legend in his own time. Don’t let those strings scare ya. Waylon and George never feared a string section either, and it didn’t mess with their twang. A nice outlook on life, a great steel guitar track and a voice that puts the current hat crop to shame. Not a bad combination for one little single.
Grade: B+
Listen: Rollin’ With the Flow
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
The 9513 flagged this quote last week from Trace Adkins, which was originally reported at Billboard’s website:
“I’m kind of talking out of school here, but we’re going to try to get the album out before the end of the year,” Adkins says. “We have a couple singles we can choose from, and I don’t really care which one it is because they’re both strong. It doesn’t matter where ‘I Wanna Feel Something’ is. It’s had its run in my opinion, and I just don’t have the patience that I used to have anymore. I just don’t.
“You send a song to radio and they play it for 16 weeks or whatever, and then you can just tell it’s not going to be one of those records they’re going to jump all over. And if we kept working at it, could we get it top 10? Yeah, we probably could. But you know what, those numbers are just not that important to me anymore. It would be a long, labor-intensive work record, and I don’t have time for that.”
I’m a big fan of “I Wanna Feel Something”. As I noted in my review of the single earlier this year, it’s one of his best singles to date. This is the kind of quote that will piss off people in the industry, especially at radio and his label, but he’s speaking to a problem that has grown dramatically larger over the past decade. The slow turnover of singles at country radio and their increasing dependency on recurrents and gold titles means that fewer songs get exposure at radio.
Back in the nineties and earlier, the life cycle of a single was about three months, meaning hit artists could work four records a year to radio. The really big ones could sometimes squeeze in five, and B-list artists were good for three. The quicker turnover meant more artists could be heard on the radio, more careers could be sustained, and more music could be discovered by listeners.
Radio would also jump on a new record from an artist coming off of a big hit. Adkins put out a killer ballad to follow-up his multi-week #1 “Ladies Love Country Boys”, and radio barely touched it. How could they, when they were still spinning that hit incessantly? “I Wanna Feel Something” never netted more spins or audience impressions in a week than that hit, which would still be in the top 25 if recurrent rules hadn’t forced it off of the chart. New singles from Emerson Drive and Billy Currington are struggling for the same reason; radio just won’t stop spinning the big hits that came before them. Unless you’re an A-list radio artist – think Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban – you don’t have much of a chance at consistent radio action.
When country music was at its peak of popularity – the nineties – the list of non-superstar artists who scored four top ten hits or more from an album was lengthy. Tracy Byrd. BlackHawk. Diamond Rio. Pam Tillis. Trisha Yearwood. Joe Diffie. Toby Keith. Patty Loveless. Martina McBride. Billy Dean. Mary Chapin Carpenter. Deana Carter. Clay Walker. Tracy Lawrence. Mark Chesnutt. Doug Stone. Jo Dee Messina.
All of these artists managed to get their records spinned enough to sustain lengthy careers, even while radio gave the bulk attention to its superstars of the day, and each one of them can still release music today because of their established success back then. Imagine how many of today’s artists could be in the same position if radio returned to a faster turnover and longer playlists.
Saturday, July 28th, 2007
They tried this tack before with “You Do Your Thing”, and the same dilemma surfaces. It’s hard to believe that you don’t care what other people think about you if you’re taking the time to loudly claim to the world that you don’t care what other people think about you. They doth protest too much.
That said, this is a much more entertaining record than “You Do Your Thing”, with their catchiest melody and hook since “If You Ever Stop Loving Me.” I bobbed my head along in enjoyment, even as I disregarded the dead-on-arrival message of the lyrics.
Grade: B
Listen: What Do Ya Think About That
Buy: What Do Ya Think About That
Saturday, July 28th, 2007
It’s hard to dislike any record that open with a mandolin. It’s damn near impossible to not enjoy a sincere and credible exploration of working-class frustration. A vocal group needs great songs to distinguish them from the pack, and this accomplishes that task nicely. This is easily the best single they’ve released to date, and a clear indication that they might be more than just another country band.
Grade: B+
Listen: Dealin’
Buy: Dealin’
Saturday, July 28th, 2007
This is Pam’s first single in eleven years that she’s had a hand in writing, and it’s easily the most personal song she’s ever released. She had referred on record before to the car crash in her teens that nearly claimed her life, but never so openly and directly as she does here. She weaves through the mistakes she’s made along the way in life and love, nothing that “I’ve never liked the sound of sound advice, and when I should’ve thought it over, well I never did think twice.”
Along the way, she’s taking full responsibility and never sounds like a victim of her own decisions. There’s a beautiful thread of optimism woven into the lyric, though the wisdom of many mistakes in the past make her reluctant to believe that the new love of her life is for real, since “each time I’ve believed before, that’s right where it all went wrong.” There are so many emotional layers to her reading of the next line – “You swear you love me, and oh God, I think you mean it” - that it reveals something new each time you hear it again.
My championing of Tillis’ new album Rhinestoned entered evangelization territory months ago, but I’m happy to say it again: this record proves that country music at its best is a form of art, not just a radio format.
Grade: A+
Listen: The Hard Way
Buy: The Hard Way
Saturday, July 28th, 2007
This is the kind of faceless vocal group radio fodder that has been present ever since Alabama spent the early eighties as the big dogs, the equivalent of the faceless hat act radio fodder that’s been around since George Strait first went platinum. You’ve heard songs just like this before from Exile, Restless Heart, Lonestar, Ricochet, etc., etc. It’s already on the way out of your head as soon as it works its way in. Skip it.
Grade: C-
Listen: Once a Woman Gets a Hold of Your Heart
on 
on 
on 
on 
on 
on 