Burd Bites Volume 1

In which we talk music and add a contributer to the Today I Heard family!

Welcome to Burd Bites. Stream of consciousness reviews of usually fairly up to date material from a dude just like you.

Joe here. I have always felt that one of the things we lost in the pivot to streaming is the old route of discovering music. Algorithms have reduced our willingness to take risks and invest into unknown material. Usually we hesitantly try out a album song by song. Maybe we give each song a minute or two to see if it captivates us. We skim through the Friday releases and don’t risk the unknown. Why ought we? After all, we have curated daily mixtapes comprised of all our favorite songs and styles ready for us to dive into the comfortable haze of endorphins at our fingertips. In an effort to replicate the word of mouth buzz that characterized the old ways of discovering music, I have recruited a friend of mine to give his thoughts and recommendations on whatever he listened to throughout the past month. Some will be current and others older but the idea is the same. A guy giving his straight thoughts on music for his buddies to hear. You may have heard them already and perhaps not. It is all about bringing back the organic mode of discovery. The following is a compilation of bite sized discord review and recommendation posts from the Burd. I hereby present to you Burd Bites volume 1.

Carly Pearce - 29: Written in Stone

Yeah, this album is great.  It sounds great, has fun lyrics, great instrumentals, I even like a lot of the vocals Carly has on this album which is good as I have never really liked her voice.  Majority of the songs here are quality but I think there are a couple issues.  First off, I hate the sound of Liability, it almost sounds like a sex jam and I hate that because otherwise this song would've been great with its great wordplay and a killer hook.  I'm also not crazy about some of the production on Should've Known Better and Messy. There isn't anything about these two songs I actively dislike, they just don't stick out to me in any real way.  I wish the album would've ended with Day One, the two tracks afterwards just didn't speak to me at all and Day One is such a great song to wrap things up on.  Now that I'm done nitpicking (I have to with an album like this), everything else about this album is perfect.  Diamondback is one of the funnest songs I have heard in awhile, Never Wanted to Be That Girl is heartbreaking, Easy Going takes the cake on this album for best instrumental moment, and everyone already knows that 29 is perfect so I'm not even gonna continue.

Best Songs:  Diamondback, What He Didn't Do, Easy Going, 29, Never Wanted to Be That Girl, Day One

Worst Songs: Should've Known Better, Messy

Final Score: Light 9/10

El Rio - Frankie Ballard

I have actually already heard this one before but I just had it on background. Joe recommended it to me awhile back.  Today I finally sat down and listened to it and it's pretty good, it just has some issues that I need to get out of the way before I praise it too much.  First of all, Sam Hunt's Montevallo is probably more country than this album, this is a full-fledged rock album. There is nothing wrong about that, I love rock. It's just more dumb genre mislabeling.  Also, there are just too many bro country cliches on this album.  Of course there is los of great songs too, but songs like Little Bit of Both and Southern Side just make me cringe.

Now for the praise, I think the real thing that shines on here is Frankie's authenticity and delivery. There's something about him that makes him feel so cool and badass to me (wish he would release new stuff, it's a sad life we live folks) and on El Camino and L.A Women I think he really shines.  I also just LOVE the sound of L.A Women and Sweet Time, I think Wasting Time has a cool groove to it as well.  This album is covered in great melodies and hooks. There is also a cover of Bob Seger's You'll Accomp'ny Me which is also great.  And the album cover You Could've Loved Me attempts to hit a little deeper than all of the fun tracks on this album and I'd say it succeeds pretty well.

Best Songs: El Camino, L.A Women, Sweet Time, You'll Accomp'ny Me, You Could've Loved Me

Worst Songs: Little Bit of Both, Southern Side

Final Score: Decent 7/10

J- I have a love for Frankie Ballards music and it’s a shame he never was able to successfully build on the success of his debut album. Keep the name in your head because it wouldn’t surprise me if I did a bit of a deeper dive into some of his music. Don’t judge him by his best known hits, although those are great. There’s some real artistry and depth to him that got overlooked.  

Zac Brown Band - The Comeback Review

So this album was made to get as far away from the sound ZBB had on The Owl, and it definitely did that, but at what cost?  This album was extremely underwhelming and I will probably forget about it in the next week or so.  While there were definitely some standouts on this album, I must bring up that almost every time a song has an impressive lyrical idea or vocal performance, it is buried behind all the bland instrumentals on it.  Prime examples of this are songs like Old Love Song, which has great wordplay, and Any Day Now which has great imagery.

Zac is obviously trying to chase his glory days (insert Springsteen reference here).

There are more beach songs on here than any album he has had since The Foundation.  Paradise Lost on Me was like, what if we made Toes sad?  The most apparent moment of this anywhere on the record  was on Same Boat, which pretty much ripped the whole melody from Chicken Fried and replaced all the fun hooks with bland "Oh, why can't we all get along?" lyrics.  Zac's vocals also don't fit songs like this anymore, his voice just isn't as welcoming as it used to be.  I think what he needs to do is evolve his sound to fit more with his current vocal tone without pulling an Owl Part 2.  Also, what exactly is up with GA Clay, this is a song straight out of the bro era except it's even worse because instead of saying "Georgia" like a normal song would, it decides to say "G.A" for no apparent reason???

There is also some great stuff however.  I think Stubborn Pride is a perfect example of Zac using his older vocal tone to his advantage, it is also just a great song.  Fun Having Fun is also a really dumb song, but it's incredibly self aware and it uses the dumbness to its advantage.

Best Songs: Stubborn Pride, Fun Having Fun

Final Score: light 6/10

Random Singles

If I Was a Cowboy - Miranda Lambert

This one is okay, still not crazy about Jay Joyce's production style when it comes to Miranda, I think this song would've benefited if it sounded more western and less poppy.  Besides that I liked her delivery on this one and her charisma shines through, I'd probably give it like a light 7.

U Gurl - Walker Hayes

Exactly what I expected, and that is not a compliment.  Light 1/10

J- Not gonna lie, when I saw this title I felt like I needed to give it a spin. Hayes for some  reason has became the breakout star of 2021 and even though its as far removed from my taste as possible, I felt the need to listen simply to gauge the extremities of the genres current pop fascination. It’s a bad hip hop/pop song and nothing else. I get that Hayes felt the need to follow up the unexpected smash of Fancy Like and nothing else on the mediocre EP he released this year could work as that but this is pretty terrible even for the low standards I have of him. Strong 0/10 if I’m generous.

Break Your Own Damn Heart - HIXTAPE

I am very convoluted on this one, it's fun, catchy, and has a great hook, but man the production of this one just doesn’t fit well with Midland's style, I also thought that Marty Stuart was criminally underused on this one.  Mid 6/10

J- HIXTAPE 2 has been a mess so far and I don’t have much else to say. The bright spot of it all is that it has led me to ponder about the nature of good writing and production but those thoughts are unfinished as of yet. I love Marty Stuart and enjoy me some Midland but this song was grafted onto them not crafted for them and it shows. I’m with Burd on this one.

If you have any comments on the songs mentioned or any specific recommendations, leave us a comment. If you liked what you read here, please subscribe and share with your friends. Organic sharing is more real and lasting and it brings back a sorely missed part of the musical experience.

Joe