“Brokenheartsville”
Joe Nichols
Written by Randy Boudreaux, Clint Daniels, Donny Kees, and Blake Mevis
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
March 21, 2003
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
March 29, 2003
There’s so much excitement when a new artist breaks through, especially if they seem to be drawing on influences that were falling by the wayside at the time that they emerge.
The market was ripe for a traditional country revival, which was left wide open during the peak years of pop crossover and roots music breaking through to the mainstream.
Nichols fit the bill perfectly, as “Brokenheartsville” demonstrates so well. Listen closely and you can hear the influence of George Strait all over his phrasing, especially when the record is at its most conversational.
Of course, the problem with reminding someone of George Strait is that you’re going to be compared to him, and this record needed some of Strait’s secret sauce for it to fully achieve its goals. An extra dose of humor and a richer delivery of some of the lines would make a big difference to the final product.
As is, it’s better than most of what the hat acts were putting out a few years earlier, and it holds up as well as some of Strait’s own hits from this time period.
“Brokenheartsville ” gets a B+.
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I loved this song when it came out and still do. While the George Strait comment seems appropriate for Nichols ultimate career, the fact is that Nichols did a better job on this particular song than Strait would have been able to do. Solid “A”
1 100% agree with you on this one. I would NOT have preferred Strat to cut this one.
Definitely an A for me. This song was in my top 5 for the decade.
Nichols had one of the best country voices ever on radio. That, along with a great song, made him a new favorite.
Wish his career had lasted longer. He was a keeper for country radio. I just wish they had known a great talent when they heard it.
…there are these rare moments of country perfection – this is one of them. frankly, i george strait was left out of the conversation here, i wouldn’t miss him for a second.
There is no new ground breaking on this song but it’s just simple great country music sung well. “A-“. It was songs like this at this time that make me at least occasionally tune into country radio.
Grrrr…now I’m getting screwed out of writing a review on this one too. I give up!
“He wore that cowboy hat to cover up his horns” is one of the best opening lines. I also love “kiss my glass”. The melody is fantastic too, what with its unexpected modulations.
As one of the ten people who actually bought Joe Nichols’ first album in 1996, I was cheering for him. “The Impossible” didn’t do much for me at first, but grew on me later. This song, however, was an instant thumbs-up for me. It’s probably my favorite Joe Nichols song overall. I just love everything about it.
Co-writer Clint Daniels has a really great side for his unreleased Arista album in 1998, “A Fool’s Progress”.
I’d definitely give this one an A. I wish Joe had kept up this standard of material.
Even his next-worst songs are a million times better than “If Nobody Believed in You”. That one was downright heinous, and I can see why he left it off the Greatest Hits despite including several less-successful cuts.
I agree with your comments about the humor. If the “kiss my glass” line had just a wee bit different affectation on it to make the inherent silliness of it shine through, I think it’d be perfect. As it stands, though, I still think this is a solid song.
Fun story about Joe Nichols – his daughter was on my soccer team when I was a kid, and he came to our last game that season. Somewhere at my parent’s house I have a Joe Nichols autographed soccer ball.
I think he nails the humor in his next number one hit. He seems to have peaked with this album commercially, but I find a lot of the work he does down the road quite good.
My take on Nichols has been pretty consistent: There’s a better timeline where he has Blake Shelton’s career arc.
And while I’d put him on par with Shelton in terms of talent and general quality of material, I would never put him on par with Strait or some of the all-time greats who came before or after him.
Nichols remains criminally underrated.
Far from lacking a sense of humor, there are few songs from the 2000s this deft at being simultaneously dark and charming, guided along by great lyrics, outstanding vocals, and a killer arrangement. Joe Nichols came out of the gate on fire just like the devil in the Coupe de ville. As for King George, it had been quite a while since he had any singles with as much personality or secret sauce as “Brokenheartsville”. Grade: A
Testing
Mark,
I found the (now restored!) comment you left in the Spam filter: It looks like it had been submitted 4x within the span of 2 minutes, likely due to a server upload speed issue. The duplication caused it to get kicked over to spam.
Thanks much. I’ve been having no end of problems posting here in the last several days. Weirder yet that I’ve had no different luck on my office computer than my home computer.