Chesney’s made a career out of nostalgia trips like this one. Here, he’s reminiscing for the glory of being on the high school football team. He’s been down this road before, more times than I can count at this point.
But I dare say this one’s just a little different. Chesney sounds older, much older. Not wiser, mind you. Just older.
There’s the core of a good song idea here. Really. And he’s singing from the heart, clearly addressing this song to his late wife. It’s hard not to feel guilty criticizing this record.
But I’m gonna have to do it anyway. If I didn’t already know Gokey’s back story, I’d think he was just trying to imitate Rascal Flatts. Listen to the chorus, which he sings like it’s a carbon copy of the verse from “What Matters Most.” In that hit, it was “I’m not a-fraid to cry, every now, and again, even though, with going on, with you gone, still upsets me.” In this song, it’s “I will laugh, I will cry, shake my fist, at the sky, I will not say goodbye.”
How to review this new Reba McEntire single?
I could…
A. Write something short and not particularly clever:
Turn off the radio!
B. Moan that this is a record beneath the talents of a future/should already be present Country Music Hall of Famer:
Why is the great voice that brought us “You Lie” and “Somebody Should Leave” singing this?
Country music legend tells of a certain powerful, polarizing breed of radio single, said to have been spun together out of pure cane sugar by Aphrodite herself (or her Southern Baptist counterpart, April-Jean the Angel. Depends who you ask.) The single appears only sporadically, sometimes waiting years to fully reemerge – but when it comes, it walks loudly and carries a big, hooked stick.
It’s been known to travel under many names: “Ooo, Turn It Up!”; “I’m Getting Kind Of Sick Of This Song”; “Oh God, AGAIN?”. All of them worthy monikers, to be sure. But for the purposes of this review, we’ll keep things straightforward and call it the “Shameless Pop Ditty.”
I remember thinking when I first heard Sara Evans sing “Cheatin'” that it was the best record Reba McEntire hadn’t recorded in a long time.
Listening to the new Joe Nichols single “The Shape I’m In”, I’m thinking the same thing about George Strait.
Perhaps it’s just because “The Breath You Take” is still a fresh disappointment in my mind, but I can’t help thinking Strait would’ve knocked “The Shape I’m In” out of the park.
That being said, Nichols does a good job himself, in a vocal performance that is so inspired by Strait it might as well be an homage.
One of my favorite tracks from Lambert’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was her spin on Gillian Welch’s “Dry Town.” I’m happy to report that her new single, “Only Prettier”, has a twangy guitar hook that’s nearly identical to the one that underscored that album track.
But wow, is the arrangement surrounding it more ambitious. Lambert’s quickly built a reputation as being a progressive artist, so it’s easier for her to get a free pass on a record that sounds like a misguided attempt to remix a country song for mainstream rock radio. The thrashing guitars drown out the steel guitar and come close to overshadowing a great vocal performance from Lambert.
Much like no pop star has ever been able to learn all of the right lessons from Madonna, no country star has yet to learn all of the right lessons from Shania Twain.
But darn if Carrie Underwood isn’t getting close. “Undo It” is short, sweet, and undeniably catchy. “Undo It” features both “We Will Rock You” drum riffs and twangy fiddle, as if those two things together are as natural as peanut butter and chocolate.
It even has a chorus of “Na Na Na’s” so infectious that somewhere in the world, Steam is reflexively adding, “Hey Hey, Goodbye.”
Trace Adkins has been around for a long time, perhaps even been counted out once or twice along the way. He’s had a handful of big singles that have brought back some forward momentum when his career has started to lull.
But even when he has faltered, it usually hasn’t been because of a lack of good material or good vocal performances. But therein lies the rub: his material and vocal performances are usually good, not great.
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