“Wasted Time”
Keith Urban
Written by James Abrahart, Keith Urban, and Greg Wells
To his credit, you can tell a Keith Urban record is a Keith Urban record as soon as it starts.
But there’s a thin line between consistency and redundancy, and there’s nothing on “Wasted Time” that we haven’t heard before. Even the banjo licks that sounded so fresh on “Somebody Like You” sound so recycled now.
That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to enjoy here. Urban remains an effortlessly effective vocalist who can create a hook out of the most pedestrian melody. And who but our Aussie import would refer to guns in his truck and mean the eighties rock band instead of hunting gear?
It’s reasonably entertaining music of the highest professional standard, which is more than good enough.
Grade: B
I wouldn’t argue with the B but the only way this song would make it to my i-tunes library is if I bought the full album. That’s not likely to happen with Ripcord. I loved a lot of his material up til about 2005. Since then, not much. “Reasonably entertaining” could apply to most of his singles. I did really like his version of “I’m In” written by Radney Foster and Georgia Middleman. They wrote the song around 1999.
“reasonably entertaining” is the entire reason the country music industry is where it is right now–trying to fend off bad music with something a little more meaningful (a la Chris Stapleton) but also putting out the downright terrible anyway (Thomas Rhett’s new single, Old Dominion, et al) in an attempt to stay relevant. Part of me wonders if Keith’s trying too hard to capitalize on his American Idol facetime with the more electronic production on his album. Can’t hardly hear the banjo with all the noise in the background. Might give it a C+ at best.
I liked this song for the first few listens, but as soon as it was pointed out to me how truly sad the hook is (the best time of your life was the time you wasted partying?), I quickly saw through it. Ripcord is the first album Keith Urban has released that I can officially say I have no desire to listen to. “John Cougar…” was okay, “Break On Me” was just boring, and this is nothing more than bad pop music to my ears. I think I’ve finally reached the point that everyone else reached with Keith Urban about six years ago: I’m ready to see him grow up.
It says in the song ” all that wasted time” doesn’t say it was all partying. I wasted a lot of time in my younger years, too. I could have been more productive, I guess, but had rather be enjoying water skiing, playing hide & seek in a hay field, watching my guy friends drag race (legal kind on a track), camping out, building bonfires at the beach….just to name a few! I would say this was some of the best times of my life and I guess your parents would look at it as wasting time. Keith IS a grown man making songs that anybody could enjoy, and not capitalizing from his appearance on AI(don’t see that at all)! Some of you just don’t like Keith and try to find any nitpicking thing to criticize him for. And I think some of you miss out on a lot not enjoying RIPCORD…one of Keith’s best IMO. You guys just try so hard to dislike him instead of just relaxing and enjoying the music!
In Keith’s entire career he’s released maybe 5 singles that I’ve really liked… This is not one of them.
Grade D.