I’d give this a B- as the whole seems a little greater than the sum of its parts

*

Still, this is not the 180-degree shift many had been hoping for, and here’s why.

Firstly, Hilary Scott’s vocals sound so calculated here. The drawl she tries to inflect before each chorus is especially forced (i.e. “It’s beeeeeeennn awwwwhhhhillleee!”, as well as “You might be tiiiirrrreeeddd, but I’mmmmm nottttt!” )……….only to slip into her usual wistful, dewy-eyed mode in the latter stretch. Sugarland’s “Stuck Like Glue”, for instance, was most enjoyable in that Jennifer Nettles was able to harness that youthful spunk from beginning to end. With “Downtown”, Hillary Scott aims for a sexier, spunkier vibe, but by the second half retreats to common ground. I guess it might be the point considering “Downtown”, lyrically, depicts a protagonist lamenting a youthful fire having been extinguished in her love interest………but it still makes for an awkward listening experience. Especially when Scott sounds increasingly tired by the end, herself.

*

The vocals are not the only aspect of the song that ring calculated to my ears, however. Especially after an abstinence-dripping “Just a Kiss” and senior-prom fluff a la “Dancin’ Away With My Heart”, which both found this youthful group playing it waaaaaaaaaayyy too safe and not acting their youthful age whatsoever………………it’s as though their publicist finally got the memo and, upon doing so, panicked: “Oh Gosh-Gollies! Where have we been? Have we been loitering away in a bomb bunker over these past twenty years and didn’t even realize it? You mean singers are talking about, (gulp), BLACK DRESSES now?!!! ”

“Downtown” is the sound of them trying to re-adjust their lyrical fodder to fit the more sexed-up than ever before trends in pop culture, but doing so more with a nervous half-step forward rather than the full step. You can easily tell how self-conscious they are of making any of the vanilla traditional listening demographic feel uncomfortable, and that tentativeness is made most emphatic in Scott’s inconsistent vocal. It’s not hard to imagine her, on the first several takes in the recording booth, eyeing the lyrics sheet and wanting to say dress, but instead mouthing “Coat!” ;)

*

So I’ll give this trio credit for two things. Firstly, this doesn’t sound boring. And secondly, I do like the steel guitar-driven bridge (which will be sanded away when given the inevitable crossover airplay treatment in favor of a dubbed guitar solo or a guest rap by A$AP Rocky).

Beyond that, though, I’m still not impressed. I’d give this a C, personally. Now if only they’d make music as interesting as their Webisode Wednesdays series! ;)

I thought she had a world of potential as a singer based on the group’s debut album, but she’s gotten progressively worse over time.

I do think Swift has at least learned how to vary her phrasing in ways that are interesting and that can, at least in the studio, sometimes compensate for her technical limitations. Scott, on the other hand, seems to be doing the opposite a lot of the time, and ends up accentuating the most troublesome attributes of her voice. At one time, she had a strong sense of phrasing and a little grit in her tone, but I haven’t heard either of those things in her studio recordings or live performances for going on three albums now.

Does she still have an innate potential to be a better singer? Most certainly, and I do hope that’s the case sooner rather than later.

For all the grief Taylor Swift rightly gets about her vocal technique, Scott isn’t a bit better of a singer…

Anyways, this one of the finest reviews I’ve ever read. Well done.