“Made For You”
Jake Owen
Written by Benjy Davis, Joey Hyde, and Neil Medley
Ultimately, I’d like to give Jake Owen an “A” for effort. He’s a naturally charismatic performer, and the sparse acoustic and piano foundation on this track has a surprising amount of warmth to it. It’s the right backdrop for the perfect country love song.
Which this isn’t.
I must admit I somewhat liked this when I heard it on Owen’s Greetings From … Jake album last year, and I still think there’s some heart to its sentiment. But it couldn’t be any more cliché if it tried: “Friday nights are made for football games,” “front porch steps are made for goodnight kissing,” “water towers are made for hearts and names” … like, that’s the entire lyrical formula, right down to the “I was made for you” hook. Granted, the examples used to get that point across get increasingly more mature as the song progresses, enough to where the entire point is to show how this couple goes from the above examples of young love to starting a family together by its end, but that’s a fairly predictable formula, too. And I’d rather just have a strong story instead of a list of things.
Not bad; not great.
Grade: C+
This one wins me over sonically as I’m just loving the production here, same goes with his last two singles. Lyrically I would’ve preferred something not so list like but it’s inoffensive in that aspect. I’m hoping Jake goes further in this direction for his next album, he’s underrated as a vocalist and sounds great on traditional leaning material.
I did hesitate on the grade, but I do think Owen is a more compelling performer than he gets credit for. This certainly is a bold single choice heading into summer!
I quite liked it. B.
I think this is a pleasant enough song. I’m not against list songs in principle and I think this is an okay one, though I do think the song is somewhat boring. I think his vocal performance is pretty good and always better when he sings a balad, but I don’t think it’s as good as it was on “What We Ain’t Got.”
album track material.