Single Review: Jon Pardi, “Up all Night”

Jon Pardi Up all NightStop me if you’ve heard this one.

It’s been a long week, girl.  It’s time to let loose.  Let’s get together everything we need, and take a dirt road out into the country.  Don’t forget your flip-flops, and don’t worry, we’re going to be all alone.   Hope there’s a great song on the radio.  Maybe a nice sunset, too.

Pardi has the most nasal twang I’ve heard in a good long while.   I look forward to hearing him sing about something else.

Written by Brett Beavers, Bart Butler, and Jon Pardi

Grade: C

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fynylpphWM8

7 Comments

  1. I agree that this song relies way too much on cliches but I must say it has my favorite production of any song currently in the Top 40.

    I highly recommend checking out his album. It’s filled with traditional production. I like his voice, it reminds me of Jeremy McComb. His album tended to play it somewhat safe on lyrics, probably to help him fit in, but it is one of the most enjoyable albums I’ve heard from a country radio artist in a while.

    I’ve seen videos of him covering “Guitar Town”, “Alibis” and “The Chair” and I think he has good taste in music and could help bring back traditional country to the radio. I hope he’s successful and gets better songs in the future.

  2. We recently lost Chris Young, meaning he sold out to the pop-rock side of bro-country with his latest single “Aw Naw”. I say “aw shucks” to that. However, after giving Jon Pardi’s debut album a full listen, I can safely say that we have gained another artist grounded in 90’s-style traditional country music. We’ve got young mister Pardi for at least an album’s worth of decent music and production.

    All to often artists fall off with their second or third albums, ala the Band Perry, Chris Young, etc. Hopefully Jon Pardi keeps this 90’s style going strong through all of his future endeavors.

  3. I’m going to be a little more generous on this one.

    Yes………I indeed agree with you on the lyrics. They are the obvious nadir of this particular record, even though even on this count there’s at least nothing real cringe-worthy. Their biggest offence is simply how lazy they are.

    It also doesn’t help matters that Pardi’s vocal here sounds strikingly reminiscent to Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard with minimal to no Auto-Tune. Much like Hubbard, he exaggerates an accent with his vocals and has a piercing nasal twang that can really get on my nerves after prolonged listens.

    *

    Yet, I actually much prefer this to Eric Paslay’s “Friday Night” for two main reasons.

    Firstly, the production is actually quite engaging. The technical songwriting here is solid with a strong chorus, rolling melody line and foot-tapping, undulating riff. It helps that if I were scanning the dial, I can actually tell I’m listening to the country station when this comes on, but genre clarification aside, it’s a strong earworm on its own merit regardless.

    Secondly, I have to hand it to Pardi and his studio band for a generous helping of pedal steel. Since we’re also treated with plenty of pedal steel on the preceding release “Missing You Crazy”, their respect of country instrumentation seems sincere as opposed to relegated to token status. And it goes a long way to make this stand out in the current radio climate.

    *

    When considering the sum of its parts, this is a considerably flawed, but effective ditty that will surely be forgotten in no time but, in the meantime, I’m unlikely to change the station if it comes on.

    I’m feeling a moderate B- here.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.