Rascal Flatts, “Winner at a Losing Game”
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
When the music first started, I seriously thought this was the Pointer Sisters kicking off “Slow Hand”, steel guitar be damned. Tailor-made for a “Hot AC remix”, this is pure late seventies/early eighties pop. They do it reasonably well for what it is, but music made with elevators in mind doesn’t resonate for long. Heck, you’re forgetting it while it’s still on.
In a sense, Rascal Flatts are the winners at a losing game right now, being the top-selling country artist in a time when that means selling four million albums instead of eight or ten million. Maybe it’s understandable that they’re dominating at retail with the same style of country that won Lee Greenwood and Janie Fricke CMA trophies. Hey, George Strait, Reba McEntire and The Judds were all breaking through back then. Maybe Rascal Flatts is the last hurrah of pop-country as another new traditionalist movement gathers its bearings?
Grade: C-
Listen: Winner at a Losing Game
Category Single Reviews
Tags: Rascal Flatts
Ha! After listening to the tepid suburban fairytale “Stealing Cinderella”, I can’t help but love this alternative scenario play out when a young man comes a-courtin’. Atkins continues to be one of the finest young talents on the country music scene, and four singles deep, his second album is still producing singles worthy of leading off a project.
Well, I’ll be damned. I was digging this barroom anthem from the beginning, a honky-tonk drinking celebration that captures the carefree nature of those island drinking songs without brining the calypso instrumentation along for the ride. I must say that the possible double meaning of the title had crossed my mind, but I didn’t expect the song to actually go there in the final verse.
Simply put, one of the best songs of the year. A glorious rundown of the mundane – wine in jelly glasses, threadbare rugs, bathtub rings – which elevates the no-frills existence of a family with five kids to something beautifully divine.
Lee Brice’s second single is leaps better than his first. “Happy Endings” finds a man in Myrtle Beach watching his woman walk out on him. She’s hopping in the car and driving to California. He’s not thinking she’s coming back, but hey, it’s a long drive and maybe she’ll get to missing him. After all, “Happy endings happen all the time.” But his sad, matter-of-fact delivery suggests he’s resigned to the fact that there won’t be one this time.
I guess that when you’re still young and want to write a nostalgic song, you have to do it about your childhood. The problem is, unless you’re wise before your time, there isn’t much to say other than describing what it was like, glorifying the experience a bit and talking about how much you miss it. I’m sure that it’s meaningful to Bryan and that people with similar backgrounds will relate to it.
Enough already. I am so tired of “attitude songs” always being coupled with loud, obnoxious production. The drumbeat is too in-your-face and the poor singers have to scream to be heard over it.
Long story short: the girl next door that he falls for is really a hell-raiser. Cookie-cutter faux-Southern Rock, competently performed. There has to be more to this band than what we’ve heard so far, but I still don’t know what distinguishes them from the rest of the wave of new bands in the same musical vein.
Ever wonder what the Benny Hill music might sound like if it was twanged up from here to hog heaven? I do believe it would resemble the relentlessly addictive hillbilly jam that backs “Winning Again,” an unsurprisingly solid collaboration between two veterans with cred to spare.
Suzy Bogguss
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