Bomshel, “19 and Crazy”
At the intersection of Taylor Swift’s present-tense teenage angst and Kenny Chesney’s trademark “those were the good old days” rememberings of carefree youth, you’ll find the new Bomshel single.
They’re old enough to be looking back on being 19 and crazy, but aren’t quite so old that those days seem completely idyllic. There’s a refreshing perspective here that those days were just stepping stones toward becoming who they are today. While they seem to say that they’d love to be 19 and crazy forever, the fact that they’re already figuring out how to explain that tattoo to their future children suggests that they’re not quite so eager to turn back the hands of time.
The song has an incessant driving beat that straddles the fence between urgency and just plain annoyingly fast. Also, like just about all the B-list singles out there these days, there’s far too much going on in the production. It would be nice to see more producers in Nashville show their confidence in the artist and the song by easing down on the clutter, but you’d have to be 19 and crazy to think that has a chance of happening.
File this under great moments of incongruity:
It’s hard not to at least mildly enjoy “How Far Do You Wanna Go?”. It’s catchy. It has a feel-good vibe, and the authentic kind that’s missing from many of the upbeat singles released by mainstream country artists these days. It pulses with a palpable energy, making the song quite infectious – and very appropriately complementing the “let’s leave this town and never look back” storyline. 
It’s always disappointing when a good song is tainted by mundane lyrics, and I fear that’s the case with “That’s How Country Boys Roll.” Like most of Currington’s singles, the song –lyrics aside– is charming and endearing, and the vocal performance rich and distinct.
Sing for the common man and heaven help the working girl. Country music is full of songs about the working folk. The ones that work a 40 hour week for a livin’, the ones that worked all night in the Van Lear coalmine, the ones who did what they had to do because they didn’t want to let Mama down. Hey, even a girl named Fancy has gotta pay the bills.
It’s been well established by this point that Carrie Underwood’s eighties pop/rock runs deep in her musical roots. Being part of the MTV generation, this isn’t surprising, as the days of country artists who were only exposed to country music are long gone.
It’s hard to fault Craig Morgan for recording yet another “we’re a bunch of rednecks having a good time” anthem. Such songs have been his bread and butter.
In lesser hands, “To Say Goodbye” could have been hopelessly maudlin. But Joey + Rory deliver a heavy message with a light touch, without any bells and whistles in the production or the vocal. The end result is that the stories of a woman who loses her husband in a plane crash and of a man who tends to his elderly wife who has lost her memory don’t focus on the tragedy. Rather, there’s an emphasis on the quiet emptiness left in the wake of these events.
Somewhere underneath “Everywhere I Go” is a great song, but to find it, you have to dig a little too deep. The song’s pleasing melody and bittersweet lyrics –Vassar sings of haunting, lingering memories of a lost love– are coated with layers of dramatic, distracting production. Even the conviction Vassar brings to the song starts to feel slightly artificial when he pushes his vocals over the top in the chorus, the most off-putting aspect of the song. 
When you’re a teenager, parents can give you all the advice in the world, based on their wealth of experience, because, after all, they were once teenagers too. But will you listen? Is it really possible to separate parents’ advice from parents’ perceived restrictions? It’s a rare teen who can.