Friday Night Heartbroken
What was, is no longer. Why? A Jon Pardi song review.
Some brief thoughts on Jon Pardi's new single.
In the lead up to his 2022 album release, a song entitled Fill ‘Er Up was sent out as a prerelease track. I loved it. To quote my breathless blogger take from those sweet halcyon days of yore (ie 2022).....
“As any oxygen breathing, get off my lawn yelling, George Strait worshipping, country music traditionalist would tell you, Pardi is our guy in Nashville. He’s one of the good ones. His last couple albums have been chock full of old school fun, mixing barn stomping honky tonk anthems with mournful fiddle driven tunes that properly punch in the feels. We even forgive his slight use of drum machines because his sound is so country…..
….When I heard Mr. Pardi describe the new pre-release song in an interview as just a good ol’ fun honky tonk drinking song, I couldn’t hold myself back. I need a summer party song to energize those late night road trip vibes. Fill ‘Er Up is infectious. It’s full of energy. We don’t need to import EDM drops, or Guns n’ Roses electric axes, or Atlanta trap snares or other trendy artifacts of other genres to have an enjoyable upbeat “country music” banger. We can do it with actual country music. Country music isn’t only here to make you spill tears in your beers. It can also be fun, and rowdy, and still genuinely country. It’s refreshing in today’s genre-fluid era to see someone successfully focus on a specific sub-genre and just double down on making great music in that narrow niche.”
Now it is 2024, and I may have to eat those words. I just heard the new leadoff single from Jon Pardi and is not simply a disappointing single. It is an absolute travesty of a rejected bro country demo track. Literally no one asked for this. Here, try it on for size.
What in heaven’s name could he be thinking? What misguided marketing mumbo jumbo made this seem like a smart move?
Let’s get the musical critic bits out of the way first. This song is terrible from the very beginning. Thumping drums meet a fiddle for about five seconds, the groove is about to start and then electric axes come blaring. The tone on the guitars is grating. That leads into this odd sounding autotuned hum by Pardi that leads into the first verse. Twenty-five seconds in and every part of the arrangement so far is either aggressively pushed beyond where it should (drums, electric guitar), or neutered (fiddle, vocals). The verses following are not much to write home about. Basic and one dimensional lyrics, one note melody, and choppy flow.
The chorus, given the hard rock overtones, should have been something you'd want to turn up the volume, but instead falls flat. One note melody without any compelling flair. Usually Nashville writes to the chorus. Often to a fault. This is why so many radio songs flounder about in the verses and only really connect once the patent pending “clever line in the chorus” pulls it all together. This song instead chooses to frame the entire song around an instrumental bridge. A choice, but one that could have worked if the guitar wasn't so generic.
There's some broader issues at play here. Pardi doesn’t actually have a good voice. This generally isn’t the problem. As we’ve seen time (Bob Dylan) and (Rodney Atkins) time (Morgan Wallen) again (Johnny Cash), a distinctive voice is far more important. Pardi’s nasal twang sticks out of the crowd, especially when paired with trad leaning musical styles. Certain voices are more suited to different types of music. A deep throated baritone can play alongside muscular guitars without getting washed out. A light airy voice really needs some lighter acoustic touches to bring out the best synthesis between arrangements and vocals. Nasal and thin are not the adjectives you’d use to describe a smarmy bro country or mid 2000s radio rock singer. This isn’t rocket science.
Furthermore, the attempts made by the studio team to mitigate this audible contradictions just compound the issue. I don’t have philosophical opposition to autotune, per se. The real issue is the de facto execution, which typically is heavy handed and noticeably audible in the worst spots. This track drenches Pardi in autotune. It doesn’t work. Pardi still sounds way too thin for the belting axes and pounding drums. The ad libbed autotuned vocals were a cute touch…. in 2009.
The idea of Jon Pardi dabbling with rock and pop doesn’t surprise me contrary to my above quoted rhapsodizing. This move doesn’t strike me as a betrayal. His most successful songs always had a pop sheen to them. Often they had creative usage of drum machines that skirted the line between tasteful and excessive. This song isn't that. This is a whole new direction for Pardi. It sheds the strongly country veneer that defined even his most pop forward songs and replaces it with dated rock sounds that are deeply misaligned both on the basic sonic level as well as on an artist identity level.
In the late album stage of Mr. Saturday Night, the singles struggled to get momentum. Pushing in a new direction that resembled some of his earlier hits is a theoretically savvy move. This was not that.
And to take this in a slightly broader vein of criticism, the idea that 2024 is a time where a reboot is necessary is an odd one. 2024 has seen traditional country riding high in the mainstream. Just look at a dyed in the wool traditionalist like Zach Top who is elevating his profile by sticking closely to the exact trad playbook that defines most of Pardi’s playbook. If Jon Pardi was able to carve out success as a traditional act in the dark days of late stage bro and boyfriend country, then all the more reason to expect audiences to flock to his output now. Why shift now?
I don’t actually have clear answers here. It’s a weird song. It’s a weird career pivot. I have yet to hear or theorize a good reason for Pardi and his team.
There are some speculative thoughts to answer the last question though. As briefly touched on before, Pardi’s strength was that he was distinctive. Although inarguably Heartache Medication was a fantastic record, with hindsight it seems fair to blame the general success as primarily due to the unique narrative of Jon Pardi and less his specific product. For the streaming consumer always had loads of music at his/her fingertips. Jesse Daniel was pumping out quality Bakersfield inspired country not dissimilar to Pardi at the same period of time (albeit with higher levels of storytelling but less mainstream friendly energy and polish. Indie energy is great but sometimes it feels the cliched rough around the edges styling really grates on the ears). Pardi was different because his story was not simply, “here’s a guy making old school country”, it was “here’s a guy making old school country and it's on the radio!?” But herein, speculatively speaking, the cracks in the Pardi success foundation appear.
Cutting in a traditional direction and experiencing mainstream success was pretty much sui generis. But if we are being honest with ourselves, can you say that the overall product would have not been greatly improved had Zach Top been behind the microphone? I think upon honest reflection, that even though Pardi’s three album run of California Sunrise, Heartache Medication, and Mr. Saturday Night is one of the best three album runs of the past 15 years, his vision could be better captured by artists with more capable chops then his. Now that there is more competition in this traditionally inclined space, that reduces the differentiation between Pardi and the median Nashville product. Without the differentiating narrative, the music needs to speak for itself, and although it is quite good, the vocal presentation doesn't grab you the way most mainstream artist vocals can and should do. For the traditional country fan that isn't a problem, but for one with as high commercial aspirations as Pardi, that is a significant difficulty to overcome.
This tougher field might explain the lack of success in this recent album cycle, and perforce the changing of styles. It still doesn't explain why the results were so dog-awful.
Thanks for reading,
Joe