How depressingly generic. Sarah Buxton has one of the most distinctive and interesting voices I’ve ever heard, but you’d never know it from listening to “Outside My Window.”
Here, she sounds like any one of the countless 21st century country acts who have to put all their effort into getting close enough to being on key for auto-tune to fix it. There are layers of backing instruments and vocalists crowding out her vocal so that it’s barely there.
If you live your life only for yourself, all that you’ve lived for dies with you. If you live your life for others, your life’s work lives on long after you’re gone.
That’s the lesson Big Kenny is imparting on his new single, his first since breaking through to stardom as one half of Big & Rich. He may seem a bit young to be concerning himself with what his legacy will be, but he’s remarkably clear-eyed, reaching the conclusions that many others fail to reach until it’s too late, if they ever reach them at all.
It’s a message that could be preachy if told in the second person, but since it’s presented as self-revelation, the lesson can be learned by example rather than prodding.
I was wary about reviewing this after hearing the gist, as I’ve become pretty sick of songs that remark on how awesome and fulfilling everyday life is. It’s not the theme itself that bothers me; it’s that most songs just gush about it, as though they have to really hype up the idea for you to buy in. It usually ends up sounding more defensive than celebratory, like an insecure person trying to brag – “What? All my friends just got raises? Well, I’ve got all I need, and it’s alright by me! I’m living in paradise! Yeah! So screw you guys!”
Not the case with “All I Ask For Anymore.” There is an understated, unassuming quality to this lyric that just makes it sound real, even as the verses cover a lot of well-trod ground. I suppose the key difference lies in the approach – he’s not straining to prove how great life with his wife and kids is; he’s just reflecting on how it’s changed him and leaving us to make our own judgments. Music for adults – nice.
As heard in Steve Holy’s last real hit, “Brand New Girlfriend”, Holy demonstrates his penchant for hook-y melodies that still border on obnoxiousness. His latest, “Baby, Don’t Go” only manages to up the ante.
Supported by a fast paced, driving production, Holy pleads for his woman not to leave him. His pleas seem to be falling on deaf ears as his performance gets more frenzied and the reasons for staying feel more ridiculous: “Clouds are overhead,/A storm is moving in,/What a bad time to be on the road./It’s a poor idea with the fuel prices high and your gas tank is really low/So baby don’t go, baby don’t go.”
The intro could pass for a Hamster Dance rendering of Reba’s “Strange.” The verses rattle off about tidal waves at the Mexican border and impressionable kids on “the YouTube.” And the chorus – the chorus is like that song from Team America (you know the one – “America, [Shucks] Yeah!”) cross-bred with the soundtrack of one of those overcooked Super Bowl car commercials where you don’t know it’s a car commercial at first, but then the car comes out and climbs over a mountain or something and you’re like, “oh, all that for a friggin’ car commercial!”
Yeah. But seriously, what else can you say about a song like this? There was a time when the sheer audacity would surprise me, but coming from late-00’s Toby, it just seems like one more cog in a big wheel of Ridiculous. And maybe that’s kind of on purpose?
It’s been a long time since radio’s heard Keith Urban pour his heart into a ballad, and for all the splashy fun that came with his past few singles, it’s nice to hear him simply emote again. “Only You Can Love Me This Way” is a refreshingly stripped-down track that doesn’t consist of much beyond a simple melody, gentle guitar, and Urban’s tender vocals – raw with emotion and remarkably skillful in delivery.
At this point, it’s admittedly not original to compare The Zac Brown Band’s island flavored “Toes” to Kenny Chesney’s multiple attempts at tackling such sounds and themes. Likewise, it has not been original for awhile to compare Chesney to the iconic Jimmy Buffett who has clearly been one of Chesney’s musical influences over the past decade. Still, it seems just about impossible to avoid making such obvious comparisons.
So, where does “Toes” rank on the Chesney-Buffett continuum? Zac Brown and his crew have assembled a song worthy of the Buffett catalog, therefore, surpassing any beach themed song that Chesney has offered us thus far. While they freely give us “a** in the sand”, Chesney can only muster “a big ol’ pile of shift work” at this point.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Paisley said about his newest single: “It’s really rare that you feel musically that something you do is more important than just entertainment. And I feel like this song is maybe more important than just entertainment.”
This statement will be met with many a raised eyebrow, and understandably so, as it comes from the artist who previously breathed musical life into ticks, alcohol and MySpace. But interestingly, it’s the same intuitive, sharply clever perspective behind Paisley’s novelty songs that allows him to so tastefully tackle the socially-conscious “Welcome to the Future” – a solid, moving track that is both musically and, as Paisley said, thematically relevant.
Thought: being Jennifer Nettles allows you to get away with a lot of things that would wreck lesser singers. Her co-write “Joey” is certainly one of the more interesting songs getting shipped to country radio this year, with its drunk-driving scenario and unique “what if” narrative, but it’s also a bit of a mess, with verses that promise much and a chorus that delivers practically nothing – lyrically, emotionally, even melodically. Coming from a less soulful voice box, you know the thing would never float.
Lucky for Sugarland, Nettles’ surging performance manages to keep the track chugging along for longer than it probably deserves to, offering some interesting moments amid all the more underwhelming ones. With her in tow, plus a nice arrangement reminiscent of Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May”, even the song’s hiccups manage to sound like something worth hearing.
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