“Drinking Class”
Lee Brice
Written by David Frasier, Ed Hill, and Josh Kear
I’m always going to prefer a drinking anthem written for people who actually work for a living. “Drinking Class” is all about going out on Friday night to let off steam after a long work week.
I can see this being a great bar sing along, given its solidarity with all that is blue collar. For me, it’s another one of those songs that has an interesting beginning but dissolves into a bland chorus. The energy that it needs to take off never shows up.
Brice is one of our better singers and I appreciate his commitment to releasing music for and about adults. I just wish this particular record was better.
Grade: C
I first heard this song a few weeks ago. I just listened to it for the second time. There won’t be a third.
Funny, I don’t hear a drinking anthem at all – in other words, this ain’t no Toby. The melody, especially the chorus and the way Lee delivers it, just don’t go with this particular subgenre and I can’t imagine people singing along to it, it doesn’t have that rambunctiousness required of a drinking song. Abd the lyrics are off, too, consider the line “Ladies, break out your dancing shoes”, it almost feels sarcastic. The whole song feels sad rather than joyful, like it’s about people for whom the Friday night is the only break from the misery of their daily existence. I know this can be said of most drinkmg songs, but unlike Toby’s, this one focuses on the misery and perhaps “class” is the telling choice of words.
Not sure if I completely agree with bulbul, but I do agree that there’s something different about this record. It has a very melancholy edge. I think it might have something to do with that piano riff that anchors everything.
While I don’t think that this is one of the best drinking songs, I do think that the best drinking songs are a mix of partying and sadness–whether the sadness comes from a heartbreak or being stuck in backbreaking/mind numbing/soul sucking work. This does sound like a drinking anthem of sorts to me, but it does definitely sound like there’s a tinge of sadness. Then again, Brice’s vocal performances always sound like there are shades of melancholy to me, no matter what he’s singing about.
I agree with you, Leeann.
That is why “Cold One” works so well, he is pretending he is upset about her taking the beer, but he just camouflaging his real pain at her abrupt departure.
I think the last three comments are spot on. I’d give this a C-