It's hard not to root for Chris Young. He can really sing and his music would sound identifiably country if it was released twenty years ago, making it sound like Hank Williams in comparison to what's passing for it these days.
But he's got to pay the bills, I guess. “Aw Naw” is a typical 2013 country party song that is easier to tolerate than most of the others because it's sung really well and at least sounds like it's been written and
performed by people of legal drinking age.
Now, even the greatest country artists pandered to the trends of the times. Check out the hillbilly humor tracks that even Alan Jackson and Pam Tillis recorded in the nineties, or the string-drenched crossover pap that even George Jones and Loretta Lynn succumbed to when Nashville went uptown in the seventies and eighties.
Those songs don't make their way to the essential collections that surface when a great act's radio days are done. Hopefully, this one won't make it to Chris Young's when his time comes.
Written by Chris DeStefano, Ashley Gorley and Chris Young
Grade: B-
Listen:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmQQu6Kp90o
Since, as you say, he can really sing, this is really disappointing. I quit listening half way through. Is he trying to be another Blake?
A horible disappointment from an artist capable of so much better.
Having “Neon” and “Aw Naw” come off of the same album is a large disappointment. My standards for Chris Young are much higher than this. Every artist is allowed a bad single now and then. I hope this is an outlier for Young and doesn’t end up being his mean. I still look forward to what he has to offer in the future in-spite of this poor offering.
I am sort of disappointed that he had an apparent hand in writing this song too.
MM,
“Neon” was off the album Neon. “Aw Naw” is the lead single for a new album.
Lol. Sorry. Couldn’t help it.
As for the single, not a fan of it.
Might grow on me, but Young’s voice isn’t one that fits party song well in my opinion.
Chris Young is capable of great songs and has even recorded some really good songs, but like Josh Turner, he typically sings material below his talent. So, I suppose I’m mostly just disappointed in ingeneral, because he’s not meeting his potential, but not so much because this song is specifically a disappointment comparatively. Then again, this is steps below his capability while the other songs that have been below his potential have more been lackluster rather than simply bad.
This is terrible, but he sounds impeccable, as usual.
From the finest drinking song of last year to…this.
I have liked every song released by Chris until now – not a fan of this song! His voice is not well suited for a party song like this. The song starts out fine, but the chorus is so busy (up and down) that it’s almost jarring. The chorus is so repetitive with ridiculous rhymes that I can’t make it through the song.
Chris, if you are reading this … your best party song is “Small Town Big Time.” Please don’t turn into another Jason Aldean.