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Single Review: Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood, “Remind Me”

May 31, 2011 Dan Milliken 37

A couple yearning to rekindle the fire in their relationship? Classic country. One asking the other if he/she remembers the old passion and the other chiming in “remind me”? That’s pretty good, too – and genuinely sexy in a way neither Brad Paisley nor Carrie Underwood has ever been on record. There’s no doubt that this single was loaded with potential.

So why doesn’t it feel like the big event it should be?

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Single Review: Scotty McCreery, “I Love You This Big”

May 26, 2011 Dan Milliken 29

Any review of this single anywhere is like begging for site traffic from impassioned fans/haters. I don’t do nearly enough favors for Country Universe most of the time, though – so allow me to greet you down on my knees, Scottyfolk.

A preface: I didn’t watch this past season of American Idol, so this single is basically my first exposure to its winner, and I feel no sour grapes that he beat out So-And-So or What’s-Her-Face, and I don’t care about his adorable TV backstory or any of that. The only metric I’m using is whether “I Love You This Big” sounds like something I’d want to hear on the radio between “Teenage Daughters” and “Amen.”

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Single Review: Billy Currington, “Love Done Gone”

May 17, 2011 Leeann Ward 9

Rarely has a breakup song sounded quite as cheery as Billy Currington’s new single, “Love Done Gone.”

Rather than lamenting a relationship that has fizzled out for no apparent reason beyond things simply changing, all typical dramatics are discarded for acceptance and even celebration.

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Single Review: Randy Houser, “In God’s Time”

May 14, 2011 Leeann Ward 8

I think I can officially call myself a Randy Houser fan now. After feeling lukewarm to apathetic about his glossy debut album, I was much more enthusiastic about his more organic, but vibrant, sophomore project, They Call Me Cadillac.

Even though that album was only released in October, it produced no hits for Houser. As a result, the album seems to have been abandoned in order to release the inspirational “In God’s Time”, the lead single for an undetermined third album.

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Single Review: Sunny Sweeney, “Staying’s Worse Than Leaving”

April 15, 2011 Kevin John Coyne 19

This is going to be an unfair criticism, but here it goes.

“Staying’s Worse Than Leaving” is an awesome song. As good as anything I’ve heard lately in terms of lyrics. Mature, realistic, insightful. It’s good stuff.

The production is effective in that “stay out of the way of the song” kind of way, as it is on so many great country records.

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