“These Days”
Rascal Flatts
Written by Steve Robson
Radio & Records
#1 (2 weeks)
November 29 – December 6, 2002
Billboard
#1 (3 weeks)
November 30 – December 13, 2002
Punch two of the best one two punch in Rascal Flatts history.
Low bar to clear. I know.
But at least we meet this band at their artistic peak, following up the top five masterpiece “I’m Movin’ On” with a quite good heartbreak ballad that feigns endurance in the verses until it spills its guts in the chorus.
It’s catchy and well-written, and Gary LeVox keeps his vocal runs in check. It sounds fresher today than any of the hits to come during their superstar era. The quality control of the nineties era hasn’t fritzed out completely yet.
They’ve got maybe two more number one singles on the way that are as good or better than this. None of them are as good as “I’m Movin’ On.” But this one’s more than good enough.
“These Days” gets a B+.
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It might be because Rascal Flatts were huge when I was in high school but I have a lot of positive memories attached to their music. I never bought an album by then but enjoyed a lot of songs by them. I agree “I’m Movin On” is such a powerful song and is my favorite as well but I love this song too. I also though “Winner at a Losing Game” was underrated and despite it receiving a music video “My Worst Fear” is a great song and the album cut “I Feel Bad” still hit hard.
I was kind of into Rascal Flatts during their rollout and never fully disowned them even when their songbook yielded diminished returns and when they proceeded to churn out some of the worst dreck ever played on country radio (“Summer Nights”, “Payback”, and especially “Bob That Head”). Gary Levox’s vocals are rightfully polarizing and turn a number of otherwise promising songs into camp, but the emotive delivery is there and on occasion, he can deliver a vocal that lifts a song above the sum of its parts.
He does this on “These Days”. I was always a fan of Sylvia’s “Like Nothing Ever Happened”, despite its rough review on this website, but the similar scenario is handled more comprehensively and effectively in this song. The disconnect between the narrator’s brave and calm face in the verses and his psychological breakdown in the chorus is palpable and well-handled, and Levox’s controlled degree of lyrical bombast sells it more effectively than I suspect most of his contemporaries would be capable of. I was fully prepared to be a Rascal Flatts fanboy after the “one-two punch” you cite with this songs and its predecessor. They’d let me down more often than they got me moving forward, but I’d still argue country music was at least a little more enriched in the 2000s with them than without.
Grade: A-
I was always mixed on Rascal Flatts even in the Mark Bright era, probably because I didn’t know how much dodgier they’d get when Dann Huff took over. I think younger me just wasn’t mature enough to understand “I’m Movin’ On”, and it felt like that song hung around WAY too long for something that didn’t hit top 5, but that one’s easily one of their best without question.
This is always one of their better ones to me, too. I think the narrative flows beautifully, and I love little details like name-dropping Diamond Rio’s “Norma Jean Riley” of all songs.
I had a friend on a forum ages ago who said he didn’t think this song made sense, because he didn’t get why the guy was crying despite seeming to have a normal life. But even as a non-romantic, I understood the deliberate dissonance between the verse and chorus. It’s a clever emotional twist.
Side note: how the hell is Rascal Flatts of all acts a member of the “I don’t remember this top-ten hit at all” club with “While You Loved Me”?
Not one of my fave RF songs, though at least LeVox keeps the adenoidal oversinging to a minimum on this one. There are actually several RF songs that I like; I just always wish someone else was singing them (feel the same about Dan + Shay, who literally sound like Rascal Flatts 2.0….and also have fewer songs that I like).