My point with regard to criticism is that there’s no reason for you to take my negative verdict on the song as “insulting.” If my problem was with you criticizing my work, there would have been little reason for me to dignify your comments with a response in the first place.

By the way, reviews are by nature based on opinions, so I don’t know what kind of “facts” you were looking for, while the facts that you brought out generally had nothing to do with the quality of the song.

It should be noted though that anyone who chooses to release a review positive/negative should be at peace with the fact that there will be criticisms of his/her work from fans/anti-fans. Trust me, this isn’t my first time around the block with a reviewer and I have made comments that have been far more severe to others.

I have tried to see it from your point of view. I’ve even asked for examples. So I might better understand this review. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any.

I love this song and that is my prerogative and you needn’t be concerned nobody is going to turn me against it through their opinions or any other way.

I now resign myself to forgetting all about this meaningless review. I honestly tried to have an intelligent conversation about the substance but unfortunately all I got in return were opinions without any facts to back them up.

I’m done now. I’m off to go play “Summer Back” full blast and repeatedly. Have a nice life. :)

It should be noted, though, that anyone who chooses to release art to the public should be at peace with the fact that their work is going to meet with a response, and that such responses will often include criticism. Comments about music being ‘mediocre’ and the like are not ‘insults;’ they are just that – criticism. It simply comes with the business, and this review is by no means as bad as it gets. I’ve written many reviews that were far more severe than this, and other reviewers have as well.

I consider “Don’t You Wanna Stay” lyrically pedestrian in that nothing about the lyrics strikes me as interesting, unique, creative, or gripping in any way.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a song that’s ‘just fun,’ and I’ve even written positive reviews of songs that I thought were ‘just fun.’ But what makes a song fun is highly subjective. I didn’t find this song fun, so my review reflects that opinion.

I’m going to write a story about the sky being blue. The sky is blue. The End. There were no characters to even read about, much less connect with. There was no reason to care about what the plotline offered because the story had no backdrop. Finally, the book came out and told you what the plot was supposed to be about and then abruptly ended. A book that gave you the reader no details to work with other than the simplistic element that was the plotline. And ergo, gives you nothing to describe in the end should you be asked to talk about the book

Yet, that’s exactly what this song does here. A song for take sake of being a song. Asked to describe details about this song, I would say it was a song about lost summer love and then ends after 3 minutes of singing about it. “Summer Back” finds a topic, lost summertime love, instead of the bluesky in our story, tells the listener next to nothing about any characters or events or subplots and then just ends. Not my cup of tea, but who am I to judge others opinions.

Hey, on the bright side. At least someone is actually reading Ben’s review now.

And I agree with Ben — Jake Owen is peddling the exact same story in his summer single as this new Andy Gibson song, and I don’t care about his, either.

I don’t know Andy Gibson or his music and never saw him perform, so I have no emotional investment in liking his music just because it’s him. Some of yall seem to be doing that, otherwise you wouldn’t be getting so personal about a blogger review. Or maybe that’s just the internet culture now. JMHO.

In my initial response to your review I cited examples. Do you think you might be able to do the same other than just offering your personal reactions? You wrote “I consider both to be extremely cliche – built on songwriting concepts that are indeed trite, overused, superficial, and predictable”. Would you mind explaining this further as I just don’t see where you’re coming from? Oh, and for the record, Andy Gibson did not write “Wanna Make You Love Me”

Another comment I take issue with is this one. “My comment about Gibson’s looks was a way of saying that thus far he’s been all packaging and no product – a pretty face without strong song material to back it up.” Perhaps it is my familiarity with Andy’s music that has not been on radio that makes this feel like a slap in the face. We are both grownups and should realize that Andy Gibson probably has little or nothing to do with which songs Curb releases or how they choose to promote them (or not promote them as the case may be).

Your comment about Andy being an artist whose “musical output fails to rise above mediocrity” is also insulting. I happen to believe that Andy’s music is like a breath of fresh air in the midst of a period where all you have to do to be #1 is sing a song about drinking or a stupid truck.

My response to “I think “Don’t You Wanna Stay” has a strong melody, but pedestrian lyrics” is would you mind citing me some of those pedestrian lyrics? Once again, I need to know what you are talking about. Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson did do a wonderful job with the song, however, I fell in love with the lyrics and just in case you’re wondering I fell in love with them before I even knew who Andy Gibson was. I’m sure that Jason and Kelly would love to hear that they chose to perform a song with “pedestrian lyrics”. I suppose “Love Had Something To Say About That” which Andy Gibson wrote and Carrie Underwood did have on hold is pedestrian in your opinion also. I suppose you are a much better judge of “pedestrian” lyrics than these Superstars are.

As far as the actual song “Summer Back”, I happen to love it and I do see a relevant story in the lyrics. I love the song but that is just my personal opinion. Simply put, the song makes me feel good.