Interesting new releases covered today, courtesy of Frankie Ballard and Chappell Roan.
“Cussin’ in My Prayers”
Frankie Ballard
Written by Frankie Ballard and Tyler Bryant
Kevin John Coyne: There’s a looseness to “Cussin’ in My Prayers” that recalls the slickest and sloppiest of Lee Roy Parnell. Call it organized chaos, courtesy of the country blues.
Ballard’s snark is as resilient as his faith, as he asks God to help him endure the challenges that God insists on burdening him with in the first place. No wonder he’s got such an edge. He’s signing to his judge, jury, and executioner. B+
Jonathan Keefe: Having now lived with The Messenger in its entirety, I’ll say “Cussin’ in My Prayers” wouldn’t have been my pick for the lead-off single, if only because there are a half-dozen tracks that are even more cleverly-written and have production that slaps even harder. Which is in no way a knock against this single– it’s clever, and it slaps– but is a testament to how phenomenal its parent album is.
A lifetime ago, Lee Roy Parnell would’ve been able to get a top 20 peak out of a single that sounds just like this. It’s obviously a country song, but the production foregrounds the ace guitar-work that draws heavily from traditional blues.
And what a great choice those blues licks are for a song on which Ballard talks to God, despite feeling like he’s come entirely unhinged. “I shouldn’t speak to the Lord like a sailor / But He knows the shape of ship I’m in,” is one Hell of a line, and I love how Ballard’s performance dances between feeling sheepish about his transgressions and legitimately frustrated by his station in life.Mostly, though, I love that the song is about wanting to do and be better. There’s a self-awareness to Ballard’s narrator: He knows he’s capable of getting his shit together but is struggling to do so, and he’s giving himself a pep-talk here as much as he’s confessing his sins. A
“The Giver”
Chappell Roan
Written by Paul Cartwright, Daniel Nigro, and Chappell Roan
KJC: “The Giver” sounds like Deana Carter channeling SHeDaisy on a makeshift demo tape recorded in the Banana Joe’s bathroom in 2005.
Meaning all of the elements were there for a batshit crazy country pop confection, but the pieces don’t come together in a satisfying way. Roan comes down on the wrong side of camp for me here, in that the performance is a little too self-aware and tongue in cheek for me to suspend my disbelief. B-
JK: After waiting for months– she performed “The Giver” for the first time on SNL all the way back in November– for the studio version, the final product here is at least something of a let-down. The instrumentation on “The Giver” sounds tinny and shrill compared to that initial live performance, which impressed for its forcefulness and for how the country instruments were mixed more prominently.
Losing a spoken-word bridge that makes the song’s subtext into actual text (“All you country boys say you know how to treat a woman, right? / Well, only a woman knows how to treat a woman right”) is also a bummer, too, if only because there are folks who still can’t parse the difference between how the word “queer” is used as a slur versus how it’s used in critical theory.
Still, “The Giver” is a hell of a lot of fun.
“Ain’t got antlers on my walls / But I sure know mating calls,” is a hilarious opening line that takes the piss out of a cliché rural signifier that so many contemporary men sing about. Roan’s able to do that because she understands how “country” functions as a type of drag, and she’s showing a genuine affection for the country of the late 90s and early 00s that she heard so much of as a kid growing up in rural Missouri. Fly-era Chicks and Up!-era Shania are all over this, as many others have pointed out, and the way Roan breaks her voice in the middle of some words and phrases was a unique calling card of the late, under-appreciated Mindy McCready.
So, even if it doesn’t quite live up to expectations and doesn’t seem like it portends a larger cultural watershed moment like Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER, “The Giver” is nonetheless another example of how the Main Pop Girls are giving country that’s better than what a legion of “country boy quitters” can muster on their best days. A-
Always love a Mindy McCready shout out; to this day, Have a Nice Day from her debut is the great country single that never was.
I was truly just listening to that album for the first time in ages a few days ago. I love that song, it is the one that resonated the most for me on the album. Just beautiful and Mindy had such a tragic life.