I don’t even know where to begin.
Banjos. Hand claps. Dogs with fleas. Fergie with a country accent.
It really sounds like something you hear in between radio stations when signals overlap. Like Little Big Town is playing at the same time as Ke$ha.
It’s unbelievable. It’s also unimaginably creative and undeniably entertaining to these weary ears.
I wrote recently that country music has been leaving me numb lately. This woke me up.
Grade: B+
Listen: Family Tree
It leaves me stunned and happy, like I was with “Giddy On Up” but maybe better. You absolutely nailed what it sounds like, too. Apparently they’ve been recording since at least 2007; gonna have to check out their other stuff on Spotify now.
Oh, dear. With the LBT and “Giddy On Up” comparisons, I couldn’t click on that “Listen” link fast enough.
Yeah… I thought that was just wretched. It ticks all of the boxes of things that I normally go for– creative production, playing fast-and-loose with genre signifiers, emphasis on hooks– but does all of those things very, very poorly.
The lyrics are every bit as strident and pandering as everything else on radio right now, and the vocal track is damn near unlistenable, splitting the difference between Ke$ha and the JaneDear Girls in terms of being shrill and affected.
All credit for audacity, which can go a long way, but I just don’t think there’s any real, y’know, talent behind it. Yikes.
Am I the only one who thinks this has “TV sitcom theme song” written all over it? (That’s not a knock, by the way – This a guy who absolutely digs the Friends theme if that tells you something)
Right now I’m thinking I can get behind this, though Jonathan’s above comments are definitely also valid. It’s a fun record, and it’s nice to hear something with some personality to it. And some banjo!!!
I think my head is still whirling from this one. I don’t know if “It’s so bad it’s good” could fit more perfectly than in this situation. Like Ben, I’m still trying to decide…because I just can’t believe what I’ve heard.:)
I don’t mind the shrill/affected vocal stylings, but then, I’ve always enjoyed Ke$ha’s ridiculous-party-brat-but-not-REALLY-you-guys shtick. I do wish the lyrics were a bit more clever within their goofiness, because then I could enjoy it with my brain instead of just my ears. As it is, it feels stupid on purpose – which I like a lot better than stupid accidentally (like most current mainstream), but still not as much as “smartly stupid.” Or…something.
The vocals aren’t a huge turnoff for me either – and I do like stupid-on-purpose a whole lot better than stupid-accidentially – but I will just have to see how this one wears on me.
Well Kevin, you definitely nailed it with your comparison to Ke$ha and Little Big Town, but I can’t get behind this one. I can see it becoming a semi-hit this summer due to it’s sing-a-long attractiveness. After all, that’s all that matters in a summer single, right? The vocals really grate on me though as I don’t enjoy Ke$ha or Fergie, even as a guilty pleasure. The instrumentation is decent enough, but not so decent that this will get another spin from me.
…so bleedin’ catchy.
Ouch. I tried to listen to this one earlier, but I couldn’t make it past one minute. I went back to it after reading this article, thinking that I had maybe cut out just before a miraculous turnaround, and I endured the entire thing. Unfortunately, that turnaround never happened for me. This is definitely an automatic station-changer if it actually does get air play.
I felt ambushed with this one. I don’t know where to start. More importantly, I don’t know what to say about this one. An A or F song.