Single Reviews
Retro Single Review: Shania Twain, "Rock This Country!"
2000 | #30
The eleventh single from Shania Twain’s Come On Over was one of the least successful in the U.S., barely scraping the bottom of the Top 30. This was due in part to a lack of promotion for the single, though it did go Top 5 in Twain’s native Canada. In some ways, “Rock This Country!” comes across as a standard Twain up-tempo – peppy, with a fun Mutt Lange-style pop-country production, but the lyrics are surprisingly flavorless.
Single Review: Edens Edge, "Too Good to Be True"
Emerging with the slow-blooming Top 20 debut single “Amen” last year, Arkansas trio Edens Edge introduced themselves to the country audience as one of the genre’s brightest and most refreshing new talents. Their follow-up release “Too Good to Be True” lacks the distinct lyrical freshness that made “Amen” a winner, but continues to showcase the group’s unique, left-of-center musical style.
Single Review: Scotty McCreery, "Water Tower Town"
Reviewing mainstream country singles can be mighty depressing these days. It often seems like we’re hearing the same song over and over again. Conversely, I often feel as if I’m writing the same review over and over again.
So how can I find a fresh angle from which to approach this new Scotty McCreery single?
Single Review: Kix Brooks featuring Joe Walsh, “New to This Town”
I’ve always liked Kix as a singer, so I was happy to see that this single exists. He’s got one of those modest-but-charming Everyman voices, the kind that makes every song feel like a conversation with your ol’ pal.
He also sounds positively thrilled to flex it for us again, which is just infectious. Listen to how he relishes every note of “New to This Town,” like he doesn’t want waste a moment of this reintroduction. Love that! I love that.
