Single Review Roundup: Vol. 3, No. 28

Another killer week. 2024, y’all.

 

“Play God and Destroy the World”

Amythyst Kiah featuring S.G. Goodman

Written by Amythyst Kiah and Sadler Vaden

Jonathan Keefe: Kiah has spent the last several years building a catalog that drills deep into her interior life, naming the competing forces of both creation and destruction that are in a continuous battle. On this new single, she applies that same conflict to a global scale, and it might just be the finest single of her career.

There’s an entire child development thesis to be written about how the imaginative play of childhood is founded on world-building and, often times, the inevitable mass destruction of those worlds. The appeal of Legos is that they can always be rebuilt and reconfigured, and the appeal of Play-Doh is a deeply satisfying squish. 

What Kiah and the like-minded and also always-great Goodman posit here is that the push toward self-immolation among the men who are always playing a game of chicken with their nations’ nuclear codes is a manifestation of those same childhood impulses. What Kiah and Goodman, along with co-writer Sadler Vaden, all recognize is that it’s actually healthy and mature to world-build for reasons greater than the desire to knock it all down like you’re a vengeful god. And it’s to their unending credit that they somehow turn this observation of the failings, past and present, of world leaders’ psychology into one of the catchiest country-rock bangers of the year. That’s a god-like power in its own right. A

Kevin John Coyne: I don’t know, man. For some reason, a strong and intelligent black woman speaking with moral clarity about our troubled present and our potential future feels uniquely suited for our current moment. I wonder why that is?

As is typical of Kiah’s work, her anger is righteous and her proposed remedies are just and equitable, if we only heed her warnings. We all have the capacity to build or to destroy, to welcome or to banish, to reach out a hand or to clench a fist. “Play God and Destroy the World” captures us at an inflection point and urges us to make a stand.

I understand the assignment. So does Goodman. Do you? A 

“I Never Cared For You”

Tami Neilson

Written by Willie Nelson

KJC: Tami Neilson is the best vocalist to tackle the Willie Nelson catalog since Patsy Cline. 

“I Never Cared For You” is one of my all time favorite Willie records. Specifically, the Teatro version with Emmylou Harris on harmony. I’m quite fond of the Alison Krauss cover as well.

Hearing Neilson tackle the song is revelatory, and reminiscent of how Cline’s “Crazy” smoothed out the idiosyncratic phrasing and general quirkiness of Nelson as a singer and songwriter. 

I’m assuming that she preserved the line “Your heart has been forewarned all men will lie to you” to respect the original lyric, but it has an added potency with Neilson delivering it, giving a subtle nod to the female empowerment that is so integral to Neilson’s work.

This is shaping up to be my favorite tribute album since Pam Tillis’ It’s All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, which was another example of one of the best country singers of all time tackling the catalog of one of the best country songwriters of all time.

When a brilliant cover of a brilliant song evokes comparisons to Patsy Cline and Pam Tillis, how can it be anything but an A? 

JK: I was hoping this one would make the tracklist for Neilson’s forthcoming Nelson covers album, and this surely did not disappoint. Kevin highlighted the pivotal line already: This cover would actually fit perfectly into any of Neilson’s studio albums to date, as there is a clear throughline of contemporary feminism between that lyric and the whole of her once-in-a-generation catalog.

Tremendous as the first couple of singles from this project have been– “Sister’s Coming Home” remains one of my most-played of 2024– Neilson’s recording of “I Never Cared for You” is so perfect that she makes it sound like Willie wrote it specifically for her in the first place. For someone whose songs have been covered by all-time greats across genres, I can’t think of higher praise for what Neilson has done here.

God, she’s just so, so good. A

 

“Sober Sundays”

The Castellows and Wyatt Flores

Written by Eleanor Balkcom, Lily Balkcom, Powell Balkcom, and Wyatt Flores

JK: I’ve been lukewarm on Flores’ output to date– tons of promise, but in need of refinement– and was mixed-to-favorable on The Castellows’ EP from earlier this year. So it’s a pleasant surprise that “Sober Sundays” isn’t just good, but it fully holds its own in comparison to the three other heavyweight singles up for review this week.

What works best here, in addition to the super twangy arrangement that should be catnip for genre purists, is how the different styles of these two acts work in tandem. Flores’ vocal performances can be overly emotive, while The Castellows’ vocals on their EP were marked by an odd lack of affect. Collaborating on “Sober Sundays,” they find a happy medium between those two extremes, and it highlights how much potential they both have to drive the genre forward for years to come. A

KJC:  Concurring with Jonathan on the remarkable growth from both artists here, and it truly does come from them meeting in the middle. The instrumentation is striking, matching the punctuation of the singers. And the concept is refreshingly contemporary, incorporating the Sober Sundays trend in a way that suggests this relationship is going to last well beyond the weekend.

The harmonies don’t work as well as the individual vocals for me, but that’s a minor quibble. It probably doesn’t help that I’ve had Gram and Emmylou on a loop this week. I hope these two acts collaborate again.  B+

 

“Backbone (The Desert Child)”

Kasey Chambers

Written by Kasey Chambers

KJC: If Country Universe had been around in 1992, I have no doubt that we’d be giving straight A’s to new releases very often. There was a week in August that year when “No One Else On Earth,” “If I Didn’t Have You,” “Letting Go,” “The Greatest Man I Never Knew,” “Just Call Me Lonesome,” and “Seminole Wind” debuted together on the country singles chart.  A 2024 equivalent of such a perfect storm is new records from Amythyst Kiah, Tami Neilson, and Kasey Chambers dropping at the same time. 

“Backbone (The Desert Child)” is further evidence that there’s something in the water in Australasia, because a region that produces Neilson, Chambers, Keith Urban, and Olivia Newton-John is a very special place.

Chambers has done autobiographical writing before, and what keeps this from being a retread of “Talkin’ Baby Blues” is its emotional perspective. “Blues” was a cocky, confident rap that celebrated the woman she had matured into by the time that she recorded it.

“Backbone” is more like a spiritual declaration of identity, an understanding that she is grounded in her homeland and her love for home is as strong as her love for the road. This morning, before I went to work, I thought to myself, “I’mma go east. I’mma go west. I’mma come home.” 

“Backbone” is a testimonial to a life well lived, full of joy at work and at home. A

JK: Something I’ve always thought was odd about Chambers’ music is how, from the moment “Cry Like a Baby” hit the US, critics were comparing her to Lucinda Williams. Now, I love me some Lu, but it’s a comparison that has very rarely made sense to me in terms of either the structure or the content of their respective songs.

“Backbone,” as a piece of loose autobiography, has a whole lot of “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road” in it. Chambers still doesn’t rely on repetition of phrases the way Williams does, but the narrative here strikes much the same tone as that classic Williams tune, and I feel like I’m just handing out superlative praise like Halloween candy this week.

I’ve missed Chambers’ voice. Yes, her cover of “Lose Yourself” from a couple of years back was fantastic, but this is the kind of writing and singing I fell in love with nearly 25 years ago. It’s as great a single as she’s ever released, and it’s yet another contender for the best of 2024. A

 

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