Well, this month’s playlist is definitely a good one. If you haven’t checked out Brandi Carlile, Wade Bowen, Caleb Caudle, Mike & the Moonpies…well, here’s your chance. It was a strong month for singles, and we’ve got some promising new songs from Willie Nelson, Kacey Musgraves, Ashley Monroe, and Red Shahan. There seemed to be something for everyone in February, from Americana to Texas country to the mainstream. And if you’re shocked that a Cole Swindell song made our list, well, deal with it. Thanks as always to Zack for supplying the Spotify version, and my apologies in advance for the lack of Courtney Patton on that platform.
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First of all, it doesn’t help the state of country music for people to judge a song based on the artist. If people refuse to listen to this on principle because Cole Swindell has basically released nothing but mediocrity or complete shit his entire career, this is comparable to a mainstream listener refusing to listen to Jason Eady because he’s not on the radio. This is not about people who have given this song a shot with an open mind and happened to dislike it; rather, it’s directed at the ones who refuse to give Cole Swindell a chance to improve. If we don’t acknowledge when artists like this release something better but can only comment when they give us something terrible, what is the motivation for any of them to actually churn out better singles and thereby improve the state of our beloved country music? Not only that, it undermines the value of music to assume that certain artists are only capable of producing crap–the power of music and its ability to make people feel something goes far beyond the restrictions of artist or genre. Restricting your listening habits based on these things only makes you miss out on good songs.
So I’ll go on record proudly and say that Cole Swindell, singer of some of the most clichéd, uninteresting, misogynistic bullshit in mainstream country’s recent history, has actually released a good single. It’s a well-crafted song, a song with substance and emotion, and damn it, a song that actually sounds like it belongs in the country genre.
This is a song explaining that, even though he breaks up with this woman in the end, he’d go back and do everything over again. Their time together was worth it, and he includes little details like introducing her to his parents that add a personal touch. Think of a modern take on Ronnie Milsap’s “I Wouldn’t Have Missed it For the World.” Cole isn’t the greatest singer and never will be–a criticism for this track which I can understand more than some of the other problems people have had with it–but he gives a convincing, emotional performance here that makes up for his rather average technical skill. The chorus in particular really finds him in a vulnerable moment, and I’ll also add that it’s nice to see one of these previously faceless, interchangeable bros not only sing something with substance but actually add some heart to it. It doesn’t feel like this came off the songwriting conveyor belt, it feels like something Swindell actually felt. It feels honest in an era where honesty is glaringly absent from country music in the mainstream.
The production is simple here, with prominent acoustic guitar and light percussion. It works mostly because the main focus on a song like this should be the lyrics, but it almost feels a little underproduced, like it could have had a bit more variety in instrumentation or an interlude. This is definitely better than overproduction, but somehow, it does feel like it needed something more. That also could be due to his previously mentioned limited vocal ability, and the fact that the song was restricted to his range.
Overall, though, this is a really solid song, and we’re just going to have to deal with that. More importantly, it’s part of a subtle shift happening in the mainstream country format. When he’s releasing this, and Luke Bryan’s giving us the best single he’s produced in years with “Most People are Good,” it signals a definite, if small, change on country radio and in the mainstream. Whatever your personal feelings about this song, the best thing is that it’s actually helping the country genre for once, both in sound and substance. Well done, Cole Swindell.
Written by: Chase McGill, Jessie Jo Dillon, Jon Nite
The two most important things in life are loss and love. This album has songs that are about both of those things, and from what I can conclude from listening to the lyrics, those are the two themes here; loss, and love. What better way to make a record about life?
“Lost Without You” gets right into the loss part. He’s missing someone, and he says, “until it’s over, I’m lost without you”, so perhaps that means he has no way of getting someone back. Perhaps they’re dead, or with someone else. The vagueness of these lyrics makes it hard to understand. I do like the instrumentation of this song, though. The guitars and overall sound are nice. “N.Y.C. in the Rain” also has lyrics I cannot seem to puzzle out. It seems to be a song about loneliness, how everyone is on their own course. People leave each other behind, or treat them badly, which causes them to feel like outsiders. While that’s a very sad theme, I can’t quite connect to this song emotionally. There is some very nice piano, though, and I definitely like the song instrumentally.
Everything changes for me lyrically with the third song, “Headlights”. It’s a song about dreams and how they never turn out quite like you would expect. I like how the lyrics address the fact that dreams look better until you start putting real effort into them. He’d rather dream something crazy than to see his dream is dead. “Empty Arms” is a song I really enjoy. To me, it’s about a long-distance relationship. He buys postcards, sends them with words she already knows, that they’re going to stay together, despite the brutality of the world. It’s a nice moment of lightness after the three heavier songs. I also like the more rock-sounding guitars on the song. It’s one of my favorites off of the album, I think.
“Love That’s Wild” has an interesting beginning, where I thought the sound would be completely different. After a few seconds of effects, steel guitar hits your ears, and makes this one of the most country offerings from this album. This is yet another love song. It talks about a couple who are deeply attached to one another. She made him better after he was broken, and now she’s his queen. I can’t help liking this song for its simplicity. The title track is a more acoustic offering, with only guitar and a couple other instruments backing up Caleb’s vocals. The line that really gets me is “there’s no laughter in this house”. I wish he wouldn’t repeat it, but he really paints the picture of a broken home very well. Once again, I’m wishing we had more specific details so that I could connect emotionally with this song, but it’s not a bad track by any means.
“Way You Oughta Be Seen” describes someone whom he’s seen through many different phases in their lives. He’s seen the highs, the lows, and the way they ought to be seen. He wishes everyone could see her the way she should be seen. “Stack of Tomorrows” once again has that more upbeat tempo that I really like on this album. It seems to be a song about time. He wants to do as much as he can before his time is up, so he’s stacking up tomorrows with his partner. He spends the last of the song repeating the same line about three or four times in a row, and it gets a bit tedious.
One of my other favorites off of the album is “Madelyn”. It has some really well-done fiddle. It’s the first song I listened to off of this album, and it made me interested to try the rest. In the song, he’s talking to Madelyn about their lives together. He talks about some of the painful things in their past, and then says he knows they’ll make it. He’ll help her when she needs it. Again, I really like these earnest love songs. “Six Feet From the Flowers” is one of the saddest songs I have heard all year. It’s all about a man who has lost his wife. He talks about how he has her pictures and trinkets. He has his workbench, but he hasn’t used it to build anything because he has nobody to build for. These are the kinds of details that really connected me to this song. The backing vocal of a sort of choir, and the organ in the background really give this song a somber feeling. In the end, years have passed, and the man dies, going home to see his wife. This has to be the highlight of the album. There is just too much feeling and thought poured into this track. If you listen to anything off of this record, make it this song. It’s unbearably sad, but it makes up for all of the other songs I failed to connect with.
“Until It’s Over” is the final track on the album. It’s a love song, where he talks about a woman who keeps him on track. The thing about this song is he keeps repeating the word “anymore”. It quickly got old, but I did like the idea of the song, as well as the acoustic instrumentation. It harkens back to the first song, because he says “until it’s over, I’m lost without you”. I’m not a fan of the instrumental that ends the song, but as everyone reading my posts knows, that’s just my personal taste.
In the end, I thought this was a solid album. The instrumentation was always very well-done, and the musical styles varied enough that I never got bored. There are some really good songs on here. Still, the thing that really brings this album down for me is the vagueness in a lot of the lyrics, and the fact that I can’t quite connect to the majority of the songs. If they had all been more specific in the pictures and characters Caleb Caudle painted with his words, this could easily have been a great album. Still, this has definitely made me interested to try out some of his other albums, and he is now an artist I’m intrigued to watch.
Time flies. That was my first thought when Megan told me I have been writing for Country Exclusive for nearly a year. It certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve been part of the site for that long. When I first joined, I had only written one album review. Writing about music was something I had thought about doing, but never to any serious degree. However, when Megan and I started talking about music, it led to her asking me to be part of Country Exclusive, and here I am.
In writing for Country Exclusive, I’ve definitely learned a lot. I have been on blogs where I’ve talked about and reviewed books, but writing about music is different. It causes you to have to think deeply about the possible meaning of song lyrics, and the reasons why a song’s instrumentation is the way it is. Writing about music can be a challenge, because it’s a very personal thing. A song could mean something to you, and a completely different thing to someone else. That’s the beauty of music, and the challenge for me, as a reviewer.
All of this is to say, being a writer for Country Exclusive has been very rewarding. It has caused me to think about music critically, as opposed to simply saying “I don’t like this”. It also gives me an outlet to discuss my favorite bands and albums, which I’ve never had before. Therefore, on my one-year anniversary as a reviewer for Country Exclusive, I’d like to thank Megan for taking a chance on my writing, and to the readers for following the site. I hope everyone continues to like what I write here, and I can’t wait to find my next favorite album or artist with you all.
I don’t know why this Ruby Boots album is being marketed as country, or why outlets are citing this Australia native as an exciting new country artist to keep an eye on, because this isn’t, and she’s not. It’s most definitely rock, and as Michael Rauch of The Cheap Seat Report recently pointed out on Twitter, people are really afraid to call a project rock these days. Maybe that’s because the term appears outdated, and country seems to be the cool thing to label your record in these times. I don’t know, but despite what Rolling Stone or Apple Music says, this is certainly and proudly a rock effort. It’s also quite a good one and an obvious choice for my first non-country spotlight of the year.
Because it’s rock, it’s not going to blow you away with well-crafted lyrics or astounding melodies, and that’s why it’s harder for me to speak about as primarily a country reviewer, and why I ultimately chose to spotlight this. Rather, the strengths of this album are its instrumentation and production. It’s the style that sells you on this album and artist, from the opening moments of “It’s So Cruel” to the atmospheric sound of “Believe in Heaven.” It’s the way distortion is used to greater effect on songs like “Somebody Else.” It’s the way the vocals move from one side to the other across your stereo on “I’ll Make it Through” to add a really cool vibe. Stylistically, it’s much like something that would have been on rock radio thirty years ago, and it’s really refreshing to hear someone doing this so well in 2018.
And Ruby Boots has the power and intensity to match these songs and style as well; in fact, her weakest moment on the whole album comes when she tries to hold back for the tender “I am a Woman.” It illustrates that her strength lies in more intense music, that she’s more at home belting out among screaming guitars than trying to sing something more stripped back. That said, she does pull this more emotional side off well on “Break my Heart Twice,” which is also the closest cousin to country on this record.
The current state of rock music is even worse than what we’re experiencing with country right now; indeed, the complete implosion of the format is probably why many artists are afraid to associate themselves with the title. But just like Joshua Hedley recently said about country, rock is not a dirty word. To that end, artists keeping that sound and spirit alive today should be proud. Ruby Boots is keeping that sound alive and doing it well.
So yeah, I really enjoyed this. Fans of rock music, particularly that from the late 80’s or so, check this out and get to know Ruby Boots.
Standout Tracks: “It’s so Cruel,” “Believe in Heaven,” “I’ll Make it Through,” “Don’t Talk About It,” “Break my Heart Twice”
