Pistol Annies – “Takin’ Pills”

Songwriters:  Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Presley

The new Pistol Annies single and video release serves up a tasty helping of swaggering country fun, along with a lyrical account of a girl group’s life on the road, and a streak of self-deprecating wit to boot.

They’re “not trying to get rich;” they’re “just trying to get by… playing for tips on a Saturday night.”  The witty, lightly catchy chorus sums up the nitty-gritty ins and outs of traveling with the band – “We owe four hundred dollars to the boys in the band/ Gas light’s blinkin’ on a broke-down van/ Livin’ on truck stop burgers and fries/ Crossin’ our fingers for a vacancy sign….”

Sly, playful grins shine through each Annie’s performance as they rotate lead vocals, introducing one another by home state and bad habit of choice.  There’s one from Tennessee who “likes to pop her pain pills for every little ache” (“Hippie Annie” Monroe), one from Kentucky who “ain’t gonna smile ’til she lights up her lucky” (“Holler Annie” Presley) and a “rootin’ tootin’ pistol from the Lone Star State” who “mixes up a double at the break of every day” (“Lone Star Annie” Lambert).  The winning title hook finds the girls musing “Who in the hell is gonna pay these bills?  One’s drinkin’, one’s smokin’, one’s takin’ pills.”

The roadhouse country-rock arrangement is no less jaunty and fun than the Annies’ inspired performances as they poke good-natured fun at their own images.  It’s refreshing indeed to hear a single characterized by such color and personality – possessing a sense of humor along with a sense of self-awareness.  That makes “Takin’ Pills” both an instantly memorable and effortlessly likeable effort.  More, please.

PISTOL ANNIES’ SCORE:  9
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

 

Jason Aldean – “Take a Little Ride”

If Jason Aldean is going to be the face of country music in 2012, then is it too much to ask that he come up with something original?  Or something that sounds good?  Or that actually feels country?  Or, God forbid, all of the above?

“Take a Little Ride,” the kickoff single from Aldean’s forthcoming fifth studio album is so rote, and so been-there-done-that that it’s depressing.  It aspires to be nothing more than a soundalike of Aldean’s preceding parade of rafter-rattling country-rockers, “Johnny Cash,” “She’s Country,” “Crazy Town,” “My Kinda Party,” and the like.  Needless to say, it studiously adheres to every imagery ingredient (cut-off jeans, tailgates, etc.) in the recipe for a half-baked country radio hit.

The only noteworthy differences include a tacked-on sex metaphor that doesn’t feel clever or original in any meaningful way, along with the fact that Jason’s star is now big enough to eliminate the need for obligatory, genre-pandering sprinkling of country instrumentation.  It will be a big hit, but that’s hardly surprising, since it’s clear that such lame recycled mediocrity is what passes for a country hit these days.

JASON’S SCORE:  2
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

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Lauren Alaina – “Eighteen Inches”

Songwriters:  Ashley Gorley, Kelley Lovelace, Carrie Underwood

A great hook goes a long way.

What makes “Eighteen Inches” a solid song does not lie in the story it tells of two young lovers who run away together against parental wishes.  It’s hardly novel ground for contemporary country music, and it would fit in snugly with the catalog of the song’s co-writer, Alaina’s Idol mentor Carrie Underwood.  The song’s strength lies in the way it gets to the root of the driving force behind its characters’ actions, particularly through the effective summary found in the song’s central phrase.

“There ain’t no greater distance than the eighteen inches from your head to your heart” is a great hook.  It sticks in your head, and it concisely encapsulates the song’s theme of the constant conflict between human emotion and better judgment.  The song’s overall point is simple but true – Sometimes, particularly in youth, we make choices that are driven by emotion in the spur of a moment.  Those choices can have lasting effects on the journey life takes, but sometimes those effects can be for good.  We see this in the final verse, in which the characters welcome a baby as Alaina concludes “Thank God for those eighteen inches from you head to your heart.”  The fact that the song even has a defined narrative as well as a composite theme is in itself enough to set the song above half of the material on country radio.

“Like My Mother Does” was stale and disposable, while “Georgia Peaches” was borderline obnoxious, but third single “Eighteen Inches” is a clear step up.  This is partly because it gives Alaina a chance to show her chops as an interpretive singer, which are strong for one of such young age.  Then again, the young love tale is hardly far removed from Alaina’s 17-year-old perspective, and she thus sounds fully invested in the characters’ story.

It’s easy for a critic to give a young artist the “age-appropriate” pass for recording weak material, but “Eighteen Inches” manages to successfully balance Alaina’s youthful perspective with a level of clear-eyed insight that artists twice her age can at times stand to benefit from.  A little less “Georgia Peaches,” and a lot more of this please.

LAUREN’S SCORE:  8
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

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Dierks Bentley – “5-1-5-0”

Songwriters:  Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers

For all the great heights Dierks Bentley has achieved with his best material, it’s almost amazing how tasteless his up-tempo hits can be when attempting to tap into the party crowd demographic.  At the very best, “5-1-5-0” is not as grating as over-the-top predecessors such as “Sideways” or “Am I the Only One.”  The production is surprisingly clutter-free this time around, while including the generous touches of bluegrass-flavored instrumentation that Bentley’s records have often utilized.

Even then, the problem remains that “5-1-5-0” doesn’t quite rise above the contrived paint-by-number feel that has plagued many of Bentley’s previous efforts in this vein.  A noteworthy problem is that the song builds its hook around a concept that, in all likelihood, relatively few listeners will understand.  For those who don’t know, “5-1-5-0” is the California Police Code for an insane person, which the song ineffectively attempts to stretch into a metaphor picturing a man driven crazy with infatuation over a woman he has met, while cheesy references to calling “the po-po” sound just plain hokey.

Though it shows some relative good taste in certain areas (and mercificully does not end in a canned barroom singalong chorus a la “Sideways”), “5-1-5-0” lacks the intangible spark needed to truly capture the good-time, escapist vibe that it aims for.  Thus, it ultimately comes across as little more than mediocre radio filler.

DIERKS’ SCORE:  5
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

 

Miranda Lambert – “Fastest Girl In Town”

Songwriters:  Miranda Lambert, Angaleena Presley

What in the name of Bocephus is going on with Miranda Lambert these days?  She’s already released two weak singles from her current album Four the Record, and now her new release “Fastest Girl In Town” makes a third.  Not only that, but this along with “Over You” are two back-to-back releases that tie as Lambert’s weakest singles to date.

“Fastest Girl In Town” is loud, brash, obnoxious, over-produced, and under-developed.  She’s firmly established her primary marketing persona as country music’s trigger-happy bad girl, but she’s losing the underlying character development and storytelling aspect that made such a character connect with fans in the first place.  What made “Kerosene” and “Gunpowder and Lead” really tick is that they told relatable stories through three-dimensional characters with an underlying vulnerability about them.  “Fastest Girl In Town” offers nothing but a black-and-white template that unsuccessfully attempts to duplicate its colorful predecessors.

The cacophonous production arrangement alone is enough to give you a headache – Didn’t anyone learn anything from the nineties ladies?  But the greater issue is that “Fastest Girl” is little more than a shoddily – constructed lyric awash with throwaway lines that lack any discernible point.  Or narrative.  Or any noteworthy validating factor for their existence.  What can you say about a singer-songwriter of Lambert’s caliber churning out an opening line as weak as “You’ve got the bullets, I got the gun/ I got a hankering for gettin’ into something”?

She’s played up this same old shtick to such extremes that it’s making her seem more and more like a one-trick pony.  Doesn’t anybody remember what happened with Gretchen Wilson?  Worse yet, she’s veering dangerously close to self-parody.

Miranda Lambert used to be a bright spot on country radio.  Is she now to join husband Blake Shelton in the club of radio and award show darlings being rewarded for mediocrity?

MIRANDA’S SCORE:  3
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

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Album Review: Edens Edge – Edens Edge

Four qualities that I appreciate in contemporary country music: (1) distinct, colorful vocals, (2) beautiful, engaging melodies, (3) simple, unobtrusive country-flavored instrumentation, (4) darn good songwriting.  With that in mind, it certainly comes as no surprise that I would fall for the charming self-titled debut album from Arkansas trio Edens Edge, as it possesses all four of those qualities in spades.

Without a doubt, the band boasts a strong, effective, and gifted frontwoman in lead vocalist Hannah Blaylock.  On each song she pours her voice into, she displays a unique talent for delivering thoughtful, layered vocal interpretations that come across as being uniquely hers.  This is evident in the numerous personal touches she adds to the songs.  You can almost hear the sly grin on her face as she softly says “Splash!” at the end of “Skinny Dippin’.”  She gives a subtle growl as she spits out the biting line “Lie, lie, lie, like a politician” on the fiery current single “Too Good to Be True,” while bringing a genuine sense of desperation to the wistful “Feels So Real.”  The most beautiful moments come with the plaintive, melancholy trill she imbues into the chorus of “Last Supper,” along with the gorgeous, shimmering falsetto she turns in on the a cappella hymn “Christ Alone,” which closes the album.

That said, Blaylock does not by any means hog the spotlight, as band mates Dean Berner and Cherill Green are given ample opportunity to shine.  Their instrumental chops are prominently spotlighted on nearly every track, while Green’s high, lilting voice and Berner’s smooth, deep voice supply engaging contrast and interplay as they frame Blaylock’s lead vocals.  The sound of the record is surprisingly restrained for a Mark Bright-produced project.  While he does dial up the percussion a tad too much on “Who Am I Drinking Tonight,” and adds a loud and unnecessary bass line to “Cherry Pie,” the better part of the set leans on a simple, no-nonsense production style that goes down easily, spiced up by Berner and Green’s nimble dobro, banjo, and mandolin picking.

As enticing as the other ingredients may be, what really makes a good album is good songs, and Edens Edge claims some noteworthy standouts.  Hannah Blaylock shares writing credits on three of the album’s ten tracks; Dean Berner’s name appears on two.  The band mates complement their self-written cuts with some solid outside material, with one standout moment being their delightfully twangy cover of the Ashley Monroe/ Terry Clayton/ Brett James co-write, “Swingin’ Door,” which was a hit for Catherine Britt in Australia.  The lyric builds on an effective metaphor of a swinging door at a “gas-up rest stop” to illustrate a non-committal man who walks in and out of his woman’s life as he pleases.  Best of all is “Last Supper,” which builds on Christ’s final passover with his apostles as a metaphor for a relationship nearing its end.  The couplet of “You break the break and break my heart/ You raise the glass as we fall apart” is heartrending.

Considerably less satisfying is “Who Am I Drinking Tonight,” which has a lively beat and melody, but that leans on the hackneyed name-dropping gimmick which feels like it should be beneath the group.  Likewise, we find that the brash, hard-drinking bad girl persona of Gretchen Wilson (who is briefly referenced in the lyric) is a hat that Hannah Blaylock can’t quite wear convincingly.  While “Liar” turns in a solid spin on a storyline that has been used a few times before, the chorus (“I’m a liar, I’m a liar/ The biggest liar in the world/ ‘Cause I’ll be cryin’, I’ll be cryin’/ Like I’ve never cried before”) feels somewhat hollow, while the nostalgia-themed “Cherry Pie” could benefit from a more clearly defined narrative.  That said, the vocals, production, and melody are generally able to elevate the record even when the songwriting falls short.

As a whole, the project is given just enough polish to be mainstream-friendly without veering off into the uninspired, radio-pandering blandness that far too many of the group’s radio peers have stooped to.  Most importantly, Edens Edge respectfully treats the music as an art form instead of merely a commercial product for mass consumption.  By all rights, this is an impressive debut album, and one that heightens interest in the growth that the trio’s future projects may bring.

EDENS EDGE’S SCORE:  7
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

Top Tracks:  “Swingin’ Door,” “Last Supper,” “Feels So Real”

Buy:  Edens Edge

 

Tim McGraw – “Right Back Atcha Babe”

Songwriters:  Dave Pahanish, Joe West

I will most likely never understand the metrics by which Tim McGraw has dubbed Emotional Traffic “my best album ever” – a quotation which Curb Records has touted to ludicrous extremes in marketing the album.  But one thing is for sure:  With the album’s only genuinely strong cut having completed its radio life cycle, we’ll certainly be wading through a whole lot of crud while we wait for McGraw to return with hopefully better new music on the Big Machine label – a fact clearly evidenced by McGraw’s insipid new single “Right Back Atcha Babe.”

The lyric quickly falls apart from opening line “That night in Phoenix when you stole my Jeep/ And you brought it home with a new stereo/ Baby that was sweet.”  As shown by the corny title, the song is centered around a lame, juvenile catchphrase that lends an air of condescension to the song as a whole.  Beyond that, there’s little to it but a flat, awkward melody, watery adult contemporary production, and a sloppily written lyric wholly devoid of all detail and vibrancy.  No matter how inconsistent McGraw’s output has been in recent years, such mediocrity should be an embarrassment for an artist of such stature.

Let its chart run be swift and speedy so that afterward we may never speak of it again.

TIM SCORE:  2
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

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Carrie Underwood – “Blown Away”

Songwriters:  Chris Tompkins, Josh Kear

Though Carrie Underwood has released a fair amount of tepid material over the past few years, her new album Blown Away hints strongly at a restless creative spirit beginning to bubble up underneath that powerhouse voice.  This is particularly evident on the album’s title track, which has been slated as its second single.

With this ambitious new release, Underwood ventures into the thematic territory of domestic abuse with a harrowing tale of a girl claiming revenge on her violent alcoholic father.  When a twister touches down on the family’s Oklahoma residence, the protagonist takes cover in the cellar while her father lies passed out on the couch, allowing the storm-ravaged house to collapse on top of him.  The lyric invests a sense of symbolism in the events it describes, building on effective metaphors between the destruction of the house, and the protagonist moving on in the wake of her tortured past.  It adds up to one of the most complex and engaging lyrics Underwood has tackled yet, which will undoubtedly make it a sharp standout on country radio.

Though “Blown Away” doesn’t quite reach the spine-tingling heights of Martina McBride’s flawless “Independence Day,” it represents significant growth as an interpretive singer on Underwood’s part, as she gives an empathetic delivery that imparts a sense of humanity to the desperate protagonist who takes extreme measures to preserve herself.  Though it’s all too easy for a big-voiced singer of Underwood’s caliber to veer off toward ill-advised power notes, “Blown Away” finds her striking a balance between power and nuance, ably stepping up to the role of a storyteller as well as a singer.

Why producer Mark Bright felt to need to slap on unnecessary, distracting reverb effects on Underwood’s otherwise solid vocal is anybody’s guess.  It doesn’t necessary sink the record, but it acts as a barrier between the song and the listener, and it takes focus off of Underwood’s committed, dynamic performance.  Other than that, the arrangement, which tastefully incorporates a few orchestral touches, is generally effective at conveying a sense of intensity and urgency to fit the dark lyric.

“Blown Away” may be a bit rough around the edges, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of Underwood’s most interesting and challenging single releases to date.

CARRIE’S SCORE:  8
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

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Zac Brown Band – “The Wind”

In an ever-conscious effort to appeal to all, and offend none, the country music industry seem thoroughly convinced that the way to achieve mass appeal is to slather everything in watery, tasteless pop sludge, and to avoid at all costs offending listeners’ tastes through anything twangy or overtly country-sounding.  In such a market, singles such as the excellent new Zac Brown Band offering are becoming more and more of a rarity.

“The Wind” – our first taste of the Zac Brown Band’s upcoming album Uncaged, due out July 10 – is crisp, clean, and attention-grabbing right from the opening chords as the band picks away furiously at high speed.  The record soars with the sounds of Jimmy De Martini’s fiddling, Clay Cook’s mandolin picking, as well as Brown’s breezy yet focused lead vocal, all of which imbue a strong sense of urgency to the song.  It sounds more like a skilled jam session than a calculated product of a recording studio session.

It’s tempting to give the record a free pass on its sound alone, but the lyrics rise to the occasion, offering colorful imagery and figurative language to portray a narrator who will never stop loving his estranged significant other, mixing strong tones of heartbreak with an undercurrent of hope.  The fact that the song even exists is cool enough, but the fact that it’s coming from an act with an unbroken string of Top 2 hit singles – an act who stands the best possible chance of putting the song into heavy radio rotation – is almost unbelievable.

It’s hard not to compare “The Wind” to the offerings from country music’s other leading vocal group, Lady Antebellum, who often seem to remain one step ahead of the Zac Brown Band at the award circuit.  Yet, if one compares “The Wind” side by side with the absolute train wreck that it is Lady Antebellum’s current single, the stark difference in quality is so obvious that it should be embarrassing.

Is there any space left on country radio for music that just plain sounds good?  And cool?  And that actually goes so far as to arrest the attention of the listener?

Maybe.  Maybe not.  The Zac Brown Band’s high commercial profile may very well make this song a hit – we shall see.  Even if it that doesn’t happen, “The Wind” is still perhaps the most enticing preview of the band’s new album that we could hope to get.

ZAC BROWN BAND’S SCORE:  9
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

 

Album Review: Josh Turner – Punching Bag

Josh Turner undoubtedly possesses one of the most distinctive and impressive male voices heard on country radio today – a characteristic which, combined with his moderate traditionalist bent, has often made him a breath of fresh air on the mainstream country scene.  What isn’t always impressive is his song material.  His career thus far has often been punctuated by moments of brilliance (with the hits “Long Black Train” and “Would You Go With Me” being foremost among them), with a series of middling efforts in between.

Turner’s fifth album Punching Bag finds him continuing to live up to the traditionalist aspect of his persona.  Produced by Frank Rogers, who also helmed all four of Turner’s previous albums, Punching Bag serves up steel-heavy country sounds with a modest contemporary polish.  It adds up to a collection layered with pleasant, distinctly country-sounding arrangements, as well as warm, accessible melodies, but that falters in leaning too heavily on safely inoffensive, radio-ready song content.

As individual pieces, the album’s many up-tempo cuts are generally pleasant diversions in their own right, but when collected together, they come across as indistinct, interchangeable parts of the composite whole.  Between ditties such as “Deeper Than My Love,” “Good Problem,” “Find Me a Baby,” “Whatcha Reckon,” and “Left Hand Man,” we can expect to see at least one or two tapped for radio release within the album’s commercial life cycle.  Some, particularly “Left Hand Man” and the current hit single “Time Is Love,” lean too heavily on so-so hooks that strain to be clever, while the remainder of the lyric sheet is left blank of substance. “Find Me a Baby” even indulges in the gimmickry of slapping on kiddie singalongs and baby babbling, which doesn’t help.

Not surprisingly, the album’s finest moments are those that likely haven’t a prayer of making it to radio.  “Cold Shoulder” is a fine steel guitar weeper with a sonic backdrop that has Jones written all over it.  The lyric effectively portrays a crumbling marital relationship, in which the husband’s mending efforts are met with only icy silence.  Turner’s deep baritone is put to ideal use on the dark ballad “Pallbearer,” in which a narrator compares facing the end of the relationship to carrying the corpse of a deceased individual to the grave.  The eerie melody creates a sense of foreboding as Turner digs into his lower register with fine results.  He taps into his bluegrassy side with the spiritually themed “For the Love of God,” reminiscent of his 2006 hit “Me and God,” in which the narrator compares his own life course to individuals living only for themselves, vowing to keep his relationship with God the first priority in his life.  The acoustic-based bluegrass arrangement makes “For the Love of God” easily the coolest sounding track on the album.

In a similar vein, Turner attempts to dig deep with “I Was There,” which begins as a solid note as Turner sings from the point of view of God, and recalls God’s personally witnessing all significant events in human history as well as everyday life.  However, the song deals itself a crushing blow in its final verse, as it portrays God miraculously delivering a man from a near-miss of a car crash that almost resulted from his using his phone while driving:  “I was there last night on Highway 9/ When you answered the phone and ran right through that stop sign/ I was in the cab of that big rig in that trucker’s ear/ Made him swerve to the right and miss you by a hair.”  The song seemingly ignores the fact that approximately 40,000 Americans die in automobile accidents annually, leaving the questions hanging as to why God doesn’t deliver these victims as well.

Ultimately, the album gives Turner’s fans what they’ve come to expect while offering relatively little material that feels fresh, unexpected, or exciting in any significant way.  Granted, the sonic stylings are broadly enjoyable, and Turner expectedly delivers some fine performances.  Still, the project as a whole is bogged down by the fact that too much of the material feels like filler, and not enough of it feels like art.

JOSH’S SCORE:  6
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)

BUY:  Punching Bag

Top Tracks:  “Cold Shoulder,” “Pallbearer,” “For the Love of God”