“Going Out Like That”
Reba McEntire
Written by Rhett Akins, Ben Haslip, and Jason Sellers
Reba McEntire is one of the genre’s all-time greatest storytellers. Her best material captures both the strength and vulnerability of the everyday woman, and “Going Out Like That” fits in well with her legacy of songs that are empowering without sacrificing believability.
McEntire is also one of the genre’s all-time greatest stylists, and that’s where her new single falls short. The song is delivered in mostly a monotone, with few of her signature curlicues. She just never gets out of the starting gate for some reason. The song doesn’t require it to be effective, but a little more variety would’ve been nice.
Sure, there are a few production tricks that are very of this moment. They won’t age well. But McEntire has enough presence to overshadow them, and the song itself is also good enough to overcome them.
Overall, “Going Out Like That” serves as a solid preview to her upcoming album. Here’s hoping she lets loose as a vocalist a bit more on the rest of that project.
Grade: B
It’s ironic to hear the singer who went to Jimmy Bowen wanting to sing traditional country in the mid 80s when crossover hits were the norm evolve into what I just heard above. I guess there’s a need to conform to what’s current, but I just can’t picture George Strait or Alan Jackson recording with this kind of over-production.
I admit I’ve never been much of a Reba fan – and sure not a fan of those ‘riding down a bumpy dirt road’ curlicues – but at least she had her own unique country sound in her day. How this horrible noise rates a B is quite a head-scratcher.
I don’t quite agree that it’s as bad as caj says, but I do think that any time a country legend records an only-slightly-better version of a Lady Antebellum song (Bartender), you have a problem. This is a C for me.
This is too lukewarm for my taste, but I’m still optimistic about the new album. Very excited to hear that she’s recorded more Brandy Clark songs for this one.
Just look at the first two co-writers listed to grade the song.
They play this song on one of the stations in Nashville ALL the time, so I have heard it at least 3 times a day for weeks now. The first time I heard it I thought, although not a great song, its not half bad. Now that I have heard this dozens of times I can say without doubt this will not age well. I understand that many ageing singers will do what they have to do to try and get on the radio so I don’t fault her for that, but it doesn’t change the fact that overall this is just not a good song. I would give it a C- at best.