Single Reviews
Single Review: Jason Aldean, "1994"
Jason Aldean’s new single “1994” sounds like what you might get if you threw “Johnny Cash,” “She’s Country,” and “My Kinda Party” into a blender with a dash of Colt Ford, and added fourteen Joe Diffie namedrops. While the name of nineties country star Joe Diffie is rarely cited as often as the usual Cash, Haggard, Nelson, Jennings, or Jones, Aldean ostensibly seeks to balance things out by chanting “Joe, Joe, Joe Diffie” at the end of each chorus, while throwing in references to assorted Diffie hits such as “Pickup Man” and “Third Rock from the Sun.”
Single Review: Rhonda Vincent, "I'd Rather Hear I Don't Love You (Than Nothing At All)"
Written by Henry L. Carrigan, Jr. of Engine 145
From the moment Hunter Berry’s tearful-sounding fiddle plaintively whines the first four bars of Rhonda Vincent’s new single, we know we’re in for a sad country shuffle. In fact, the notes he strikes on the fiddle anticipate almost note-for-note Vincent’s emphatic, but mournful, tone in her first lines and the song’s chorus. Vincent’s soaring vocals, backed by those doleful fiddles and the pleading resophonic guitar of Brent Burke, deliver a sorrowful breakup song with a twist.
Single Review: Lady Antebellum, "Downtown"
Credit where credit is due: After a run of two full albums’ worth of singles that were each exponentially more tepid than the last, Lady Antebellum realized the urgent need for a course correction. “Downtown,” the lead single for the trio’s fourth album, may not be a return to the roots-rock sound of their promising debut, but it’s a definite, deliberate shift in style from the somnolent lite-AC pap that had become their signature. Lady A needed to do something different, and “Downtown” certainly is.
If a song has nothing to say beyond what’s said in its title phrase, what’s the point of writing the song in the first place?
Single Review: Edens Edge, “Swingin’ Door”
This finely crafted gem of a country song was co-written by Country Universe staff favorite Ashley Monroe, and was released as a single in 2005 by Australian country artist Catherine Britt, whose own version is well worth seeking out. The song was a highlight of the charming Edens Edge self-titled debut album released last summer, and now looks like it just might be one of the most enjoyable new singles with a prayer of radio airplay in 2013
If you’re going to go for pure contemporary country escapist fun, I say this is the way to do it.
Single Review: Florida Georgia Line, "Get Your Shine On"
Love it, hate it, or tolerate it, the one thing “Cruise” undeniably had going for it was a mighty hook. Not just a catchy one, either; as in all great sing-alongs, there was a universal quality to it; it captured a certain moment in the human experience. Yes, I really do think “Baby, you a song / You make me wanna roll my windows down and cruise” speaks to something substantial – kind of like “Oh, play me some mountain music / Like Grandma and Grandpa used to play” or “You and me goin’ fishin’ in the dark!” – or, to hew closer to Florida Georgia Line’s probable influences, “I don’t ever wanna feel like I did that day” and “You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you want it, you better never let it go.”
After narrowly missing the Top 10 with “The Wind,” Zac Brown Band returns to the summit of the country charts with “Goodbye In Her Eyes” – a release which fortunately shows the band able to get back into the good graces of country radio without stooping to compromise or pandering.