March was a great album release month. Some of my favorite albums so far this year came out this month. Drake White released an album chock full of his trademark crunchy southern rock and soul mixture and it hits hard. Randall King and The Wilder Blue did not disappoint. I discovered The Cactus Blossoms and dove into Lefty Frizzell. This however, is a more singles oriented issue of the Bites. No real reason in particular. Hope you enjoy!
Singles:
Ghost Story
Carrie Underwood
This song is painfully boring. If you’ve heard one post-Blown Away Carrie single, you’ve heard ‘em all. Her vocals are on point, per usual, but this is just more of the same old generic pop country diva stuff Carrie has been doing the past decade. As soon as this song first came on, I noticed it sounded a lot like Blown Away. Carrie is just desperately trying to hold on to the fame she had in the late 00’s and early 10’s, and I don’t think this will do much to get that back. While I don’t think this is anything utterly terrible, I will probably forget this in record time.
Final Score: 4/10
J- Well, Burd firmly planted his flag. Hope the Carrie stans don’t come for ya.
Carrie is at an interesting inflection point of her career. She isn’t old by any stretch, but careers don’t necessarily follow a rigid age based arc like they do in athletics. For example, Carrie and Miranda are about the same age and naturally you’d think they are at the same stage in career. Then you do a double take and realize that Leaan Rimes is the same age as the two of them and in contrast her career feels like old history now. Careers need to be constantly stoked like delicate fires on a windy day.
Carrie hasn’t released original country material in nearly half a decade. Her Christmas and Gospel albums are quite nice, but in a cutthroat and fast paced industry, skipping out on nearly two whole album cycles can be a killer to momentum. Thankfully, Jason Aldean invited her on a forgettable but popular duet and she took part in a number one radio hit for the first time since 2016 (Church Bells). It seems so far that the reception for her lead off single is good despite its painfully mediocre nature. Time will tell if the long break turns out to be a blip on the storied career of the defining female artist of a generation or if it is the beginning of a long ride into legacy performances and cushy Vegas residencies.
Sold Out
HARDY
Well, this is interesting. I always thought HARDY would much rather be a rock artist than a country artist, and this song along with his cover of Puddle of Mudd’s Blurry earlier this year basically confirmed my suspicions. On this new song, HARDY tries his hand at what sounds like post grunge pop metal, (like basically Nickelback) and I’m not really sure what to think of it. On one hand, the song is incredibly mediocre. If you want songs like this, there is much better out there even in the maligned 00’s watered down commercial hard rock scene. On another hand, I got lots of enjoyment out of this song. It’s a very good song for getting you hype, like when you are working out, or if you just want energy. Also, on another kind of unrelated note, in this song he pledges that he will never "sell out" but as some people point out, he already kinda did sell out in a way. A lot of the songs on both of his "Hixtapes" were very poppy and generic, but I’m not really gonna blame him specifically for this considering Hixtape wasn’t really marketed as HARDY’s project. So yeah, I’m very mixed on this song so I’ll score it like this:
Critical Score: 4/10
Personal Enjoyment 8/10
J- It’s bad. Next.
Strange
Miranda Lambert
Don’t have as much thoughts on this one, it’s just a really fun song. Really hype for this new Miranda album, I reviewed If I Was a Cowboy on an earlier blog post and it has really grown on me since then. I really like both of these songs and am liking the sound of this album so far.
Final Score: 7/10
Note to Self
Randy Houser
Okay, so bit of a disclaimer here, I was a HUGE fan of Randy’s 2019 album Magnolia. If you are reading this and haven’t heard that album, go listen right now because it is great. Randy is one of the bro-country guys that managed to reinvent themselves and make an excellent post-bro material (such as Justin Moore, Brett Eldredge, Brian Kelley). Out of all of these, Randy was the one I was most intrigued by. Anyway, this new song is continuing his streak. It is one of those advice songs (think Some of It by Eric Church, just not directed towards his kid) that can sometimes feel checklisty, but luckily this one doesn’t over rely too much on cliches and I think the list format works on these types of songs. Randy’s vocals are on point as always and his delivery and performance is great. Very solid song.
Final Score: Light 8/10
J- I’d be interested to see if Randy Houser has any commercial success left in the tank. He released this single around the same time as Joe Nichols’ attempted comeback single. I think both will flop, but it makes for something interesting to look for on the bottom fringes of the charts.
Country Outta My Girl
Morgan Evans feat. Rivers Cuomo of Weezer
Huh, wasn’t expecting to like this. I’m generally indifferent to a lot of Morgan Evans’s music. He is usually far outshined by his wife (Kelsea Ballerini) a lot of the time and generally he just makes inoffensive pop country music. Nothing bad, but nothing overly masterful either. He’s kinda like early 2000’s Keith Urban, just without the highs from that era. Anyway, this song jumped out at me. The original was fine, but this duet version specifically I thought was really cool with all the references to different country and city things, and I know that sounds kind of cliche, but I actually think this song handles it way better than a lot of other ones. First of all, the chorus was amazing, it was able to throw in all these little reference to things. The line, "Kurt Cobain down country roads" is just masterful. Also, it’s breezy and just a bop. If you like that old Keith Urban pop-co sound, you will love this.
Final Score: Strong 7/10
J- Y’all know I am a sucker for the jaunty delight of early Keith Urban. Morgan does a passable job of owning the style and making it feel somewhat his own. He isn’t the most expressive of vocalists, but he does a solid job conveying the admittedly cliché lyrics of this ode to country girls. In the hands of most country artists, this track would be exclusionary. Evans takes the remarkable step of releasing a duet remix with a representative figure of “the city” and they paint a delightful multi-faceted picture of acceptance and respect for the humanity of different types of people. No longer are the virtues of rural characters extolled at the expense of the city character. Both are held up as worthy of admiration and praise in their own distinct ways. The songwriting and delivery playfully discuss the mundane contrasts being drawn in a joyful and accepting manner. It reminds me of a post I wrote a while ago comparing Blake Shelton’s Hillbilly Bone and its sense of universalism with the more insular and exclusionary content of early Justin Moore. This falls on the good side of that divide. Coupled with breezy, bouncy pop rock/country sensibilities and you have a place on my playlist.
She Had Me At Heads Carolina, Tails Californa (ripoff)
Cole Swindell
This is kind of a last-minute addition to this Burd Bites installment, but I heard this song this morning (this was written when it was released fyi) and it really set me off. So we get another country song with a sample (you guys have Sam Hunt to thank for this travesty) and somehow it does it even worse. It completely rips off the 90’s classic "Heads Carolina, Tails California" and literally makes everything about it worse. I saw a comment saying, "This is like Cole asked to copy off Jo Dee Messina’s homework, but just changing a few things to not make it obvious”. The thing is HE DIDN’T CHANGE ANYTHING! THE ONLY THING HE CHANGED WAS HIS NAME! If this becomes a hit, I will be fuming, the amount of laziness that went into making this song just baffles me. I was debating on whether I should listen to the new Cole album or not at first, but now I definitely am not going to. Go listen to the original, the American Aquarium version is great too, don’t listen to this trash.
Final Score: utter garbage/10
Whiskey Prayer
Jay Allen
Here we have a decent pop country ballad with a hint of rock. I think that it has kind of a boring melody, and instrumentally it’s nothing to write home about, but Jay Allen’s performance gives it a lot more substance. I guess I would recommend this if you like Brett Young but wish he would make a song that isn’t about his wife or his daughter.
Final Score: 6/10
J- Jay Allen is one of the many singer songwriters scraping by hoping for a hit to break through. The closest he ever got was his powerful song Blank Stares. It is a stark piano driven reflection on the tragedy of Alzheimers. It is deeply personal and very worthy of your time. This however is an unmemorable mess. The drum loop and guitar mix is something you’ve heard a thousand times before. It is a decent write and the vocal performance has some highlights. It just feels like something that would’ve been recorded as a Rascal Flatts demo. If you enjoy that sorta thing, then you’d like this. Personally I think Mr. Allen should aim for something more distinctive so it can stand out from the endless pit of D-tier Nashville single releases. I’m rooting for him. Blank Stares is an amazing song and I hope he is able to dip into that jar of raw emotions and create more memorable art.
Albums:
Shot Glass
Randall King
If you’re looking for pure, straight down the middle, country music, well, you’ve came to the right place. This album is pure country, there is fiddle and steel in every song. It really puts you in that "honkeytonking all my blues away" mood. It’s good to know that Nashville isn’t replacing the country elements in all these Texas artists songs after they join a major label. I want these songs on the radio ASAP, this is so country it could give Cody Johnson a run for his money. Now, why am I annoyed about it? Well, it isn’t Randall’s fault. For some reason they decided to release almost every song on the album before the album is released. I absolutely hate it when they do this, it diminishes the hype in almost every way. It’s like last year when Eric Church released half of his triple album before it was released, but it’s worse now because this is just an 11-song project, and it’s not like they saved the best for last or anything because my favorite song on the whole record, "Around Forever," has been out for over a year now. It is absolutely ridiculous how they promote these things. Anyway, in regards to the album itself, everything is great and consistent. Songs like "Around Forever" and "Hey Cowgirl" are still fantastic. The highlight for me from the new songs is definitely "Hard Way to Make It Rain." It just has this roaring energy that I love, it would be a killer driving song as well (not literally hopefully, drive safe guys). So yeah, big recommendation on this one, just the promotion really bothered me.
Best Songs: Hey Cowgirl, Hard Way to Make It Rain, Middle of Nowhere Church, Around Forever
Worst Songs: Can’t You Feel How That Sounds
Final Score: 8/10
J- I love this album.
One of the things about deciding to write about music is that I often approach a lot of the music I listen to with a critical ear and intent when I listen to it. Unlike the “average consumer”, I often listen to a record not because I am actually interested in it, but because I feel I need to for “reasons”. Those could be because I want to cover it for the blog, or because I like to keep myself in the loop with the latest musical trends raging through Nashville or whatever. It's rare that I approach an album with the blissful enthusiasm of a fan. I did so with this album and would like to preserve my enthusiasm and youthful excitement with it. Therefore, I will not critically analyze it. Hope you guys understand :)
Hope you guys enjoyed!