Single Reviews – Page 54 – Country Universe

Single Review: Little Big Town, “Sober”

October 24, 2013 Ben Foster 9

The “Pontoon” phenomenon may have been primarily responsible for putting Little Big Town back on the map in such a big way, but it’s their new single “Sober” that deserves to be a career hit for the talented country quartet.

Single Review: Zac Brown Band, “Sweet Annie”

September 30, 2013 Kevin John Coyne 17

Zac Brown Band’s laid back approach can make it easy to miss when they are actually digging deeper with their lyrics.

Their music often sounds designed to fade into the background, particularly on their radio singles, which usually land somewhere between faceless and mildly interesting, but rarely compelling in any meaningful way.

Single Review: Ty Herndon, “Lies I Told Myself”

September 29, 2013 Kevin John Coyne 5

I’d imagine that to young fans who have discovered country music in the last couple of years, the new Ty Herndon single will sound remarkably dated.

Single Review: Florida Georgia Line, “Round Here”

September 21, 2013 Ben Foster 12

I smell a holding pattern.

Single Review: Luke Bryan, “That’s My Kind of Night”

September 19, 2013 Ben Foster 33

Let’s start with the positives.

It has a banjo. I like banjo.

Single Review: American Young, “Love is War”

September 8, 2013 Kevin John Coyne 8

There’s a country radio station in NYC proper for the first time in nearly twenty years. The last one went off the air before I was old enough to drive, so when I found out it existed, I immediately checked it out.

Then I immediately checked out. It’s not listenable to me. It’s playing all of today’s hits and those from the past couple of years, and sometimes a song that I like will come on, but it’s always sandwiched between filler that hurts my ears.

Single Review: Chris Stapleton, “What Are You Listening To?”

August 31, 2013 Tara Seetharam 8

Best known as the former frontman of The SteelDrivers and a prolific songwriter, Chris Stapleton is carving out an impressive niche on country radio, far from the band’s bluegrass sound. His first single blends blues and soul, nodding to the record era with Tony Brown’s subdued, crackling production.

Single Review: Kellie Pickler, “Little Bit Gypsy”

August 27, 2013 Ben Foster 8

I concluded my previous Kellie Pickler review with the conjecture that “Someone Somewhere Tonight” “would seem to confirm that Pickler’s pandering days are indeed over.” Now, with the aforementioned single having missed the Top 40 entirely, here comes her new single “Little Bit Gypsy” to make me eat my words.

Single Review: The Band Perry, “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely”

August 22, 2013 Kevin John Coyne 9

For any other artist, “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely” would be just as forgettable as it is for the Band Perry. But given the unhinged creativity they usually show, it’s befuddlingly conventional.

Single Review: Sara Evans, “Slow Me Down”

August 17, 2013 Ben Foster 12

Sara Evans launches her seventh studio album with the Marv Green-penned “Slow Me Down,” in which a relationship is on the rocks, and Evans’ narrator is just about ready to walk out – but she looks back in hopes that her man will give her one good reason to stay. (Lorrie Morgan’s 1990 chart-topper “Five Minutes,” written by Beth Nielsen Chapman, is probably one of the song’s closest lyrical relatives.)