“Rock On”
Tucker Beathard
Written by Casey Beathard, Tucker Beathard, and Marla Cannon-Goodman
“Rock On” has a remarkably clever lyrical twist in the chorus.
It’s a song about encouraging a former lover to continue pursuing her dreams, but also dealing with the loneliness and jealousy associated with her doing so a long distance away. I was genuinely surprised when Beathard turned the mantra around, noting that he “should’ve put a rock on.”
Beathard’s vocal leaves a lot to be desired. I think that he sounds like Kip Moore with a sinus infection. But if we’re going to keep referring to warmed over Springsteen as country music, it’s nice to get a creative lyric or two along the way.
Grade: B-
I honestly think this is the worst thing in the top 40 at radio right now by a pretty huge margin– and that includes the garbage singles from Luke Bryan, LOCASH, and Cole Swindell.
The turn of phrase in the chorus is slightly better than what Swindell or Chase Rice are capable of, but the production sounds like it was done on WinAmp, and Beathard is perhaps the most piss-poor excuse for a singer I’ve ever heard receive the amount of promotion he has.
I mean, I’m fairly generous when it comes to imperfect singing voices– I’ll gladly listen to Lucinda Williams or Tom Waits– but I find this guy completely unlistenable. Timbre, tone, sense of basic pitch– they’re all awful. Worse than Brantley Gilbert or RaeLynn, even. This one’s an easy “F” for me.
I’m with Jonathan on this one to a lesser extent. It’s not a bad song in the least, but good lord Tucker Beathard (or “Tucker Beat-hard,” as I prefer to call him) has no business being behind a microphone. The best I can give this is a D+/C- and I’m just flat-out enraged that iHeart Media has pushed this thing to the top of charts all in an effort to create a new Thomas Rhett.
I tend to be very fussy about vocals so I have to agree with JK and SRM – unlistenable, shouldn’t be behind a microphone – and Kevin’s KM with a sinus infection.