Album Review – Jon Pardi’s “California Sunrise”
If country music is ever to be saved, it’s not going to be by the hands of just one artist. Chris Stapleton can win all the awards he wants, but without a more broad movement represented by multiple artists doing well, and real inroads into country radio, progress remains mostly symbolic.
That is where someone like Jon Pardi comes in. A major label artist who’s had some decent success on the radio and still holds to the country roots he showed up to Nashville with, he’s one to root for if you’re looking for a return of country music to the glory days of yore.
Just the cover of California Sunrise is like a provocation to the norms of today’s country with it’s retro fonts and horizon hues, and Jon Pardi looking like some reincarnation of Robert Redford in The Electric Horseman. Then the album starts out with a song called “Out of Style” that’s about how the truest things in life never bow to trends, and you find yourself right at home as a true country listener.
So much of being a traditionalist, and being a success in country music is about holding on to who you really are, despite the incredible forces of conformity trying to squish you under their thumb. Look at Chase Rice, who penned a 7-paragraph apology for his most recent single, and it barely even registered on the charts. The lead single from California Sunrise, “Head Over Boots” is nothing special, but it’s sensible, fits within who Jon Pardi is, and has since gone gold. He had to fight for that single, and fight for this album, and now he’s in better shape than many of the artists in his peer class who bent to label pressure.
Unlike most major label releases these days where you have to go searching for things to be positive about, Jon Pardi makes them easy to find. Right off the bat it’s obvious this album is going to be presented with traditional country instrumentation throughout. “She Ain’t In It,” which shows up at the halfway point of this record, might be the most hard country song released on a mainstream country record in years, or at least from someone whose career is more ahead of them than behind.
But don’t expect to hear a bunch of heady songwriting material. Jon Pardi is not a traditionalist like Brandy Clark or early Sturgill Simpson, who will barrel you over with story and rhyme. Pardi is more the working man’s country music artist, more Strait and early Haggard, not wanting to scare anyone off by getting too deep. California Sunrise is more about trying to forget your problems after 40 hard ones a week, and speaks specifically to the paycheck to paycheck mentality.
But this is still a major label release, and despite just turning 30, Jon Pardi hasn’t earned the 100% latitude to put out an entirely traditional country record. California Sunrise has some troubling moments the further you delve into it. The first thing you hear on “Dirt On My Boots” might be a lonesome fiddle, but the usual suspects of poor songwriting Rhett Akins, Jesse Frasure, and Ashley Gorley do their worst on this song, despite Pardi and the band doing their best to country up the track. The song reminds you of something Jason Aldean would release.
“All Time High” is littered with those buzzy signifyers of modern male country that make you squeamish. “Heartache On The Dance Floor” starts off terribly, with a dance beat and hand claps, but improves from there. California Sunrise is not a perfect record. There are “sensibilities” and concessions throughout, and especially in the second half.
There are also songs like “Cowboy Hat” and “Night Shift” that in an ideal world would set the pace for what modern country should sound like, and the album ends with arguably the strongest track, “California Sunrise,” which just like the opening song “Out of Style,” goes too long in a good way, allowing the band to stretch out and actually get some licks in.
Jon Pardi is not a generational singer in the sense that his voice is one in a million. But he has his own particular style that feels warm and authentic, and his name is in the songwriting credits of 8 of the 12 songs, so you feel like he did get his stamp on this record, and not just a rubber one.
California Sunrise is not going to fundamentally change anything about today’s mainstream country music on its own. It’s not groundbreaking, or so genuinely authentic that we’ll be pointing back at it years from now as where the tide turned. But it’s a step in the right direction for the mainstream, a footsoldier in the fight to return the music back to the roots, and a fairly enjoyable listen.
1 1/2 Guns Up (6.5/10)
– – – – – – – – – – –
June 17, 2016 @ 8:12 am
Don’t worry, they’ll hold a gun to the head of his career just as they did Chris Young and Easton Corbin before him. The record executives will insist that Pardi get on board the over emasculated, bro-bandwagon and adopt whatever is the flavor of the month (bro-rock, hick-hop, r&b-country, EDM) or they will kill his career. Josh Turner wouldn’t get on board for the longest time and MCA Nashville nearly killed his career. Corbin and Young were both neo-traditionalists when they debuted and now they are just another couple of milquetoast, bro-country artists.
I have ZERO HOPE for Jon Pardi because I know what is likely to come for his career. I am sure on Pardi’s next album there will be plenty of drum machine, r&b and EDM and next to no country sound.
June 17, 2016 @ 8:27 am
I really hope your wrong but unfortunately I fear down the road you might be right. So far Jon has seemed to hold his ground in Nashville pretty well, but as you stated so did Easton and Chris at first. Little by little I could see them slowly changing what he wants to put out until a couple records from now he’s the next Thomas Rhett.
June 17, 2016 @ 9:09 am
I totally understand why you would have this approach, but I don’t like this mentality. If we start thinking like this, we almost preordain it. I think (and hope) there’s a good possibility we could be heading into a more traditional country resurgence, and Jon Pardi could be an important piece to that. The way to keep these artists from having to sell out is to support music like this when we get it.
June 17, 2016 @ 10:29 am
We will revisit our comments when his next studio album drops. I hope you’re the one who is right and I am wrong. I fear that isn’t going to be the case, but lets hope that Pardi’s career doesn’t end up on the same trajectory as Chris Young and Easton Corbin’s did.
June 21, 2016 @ 11:41 pm
I agree about Chris Young, but I have never seen the “change” in Easton Corbin that everyone on here states. I have his 3 albums and I don’t see too much of a difference besides there is some electronic drum beats on the About To Get Real album. Corbin is way too country for country radio, that is why all of the singles from ATGR have flopped save for the one pop-leaning one, and even the album itself has flopped with selling only a mere 60,000ish in its year-and-some of being released. He is going to be dropped from his label, and when he does come back on another label i guarantee you he will sell out for real then ya’ll will see the real change.
June 17, 2016 @ 1:39 pm
Exactly this, in many respects this is the album I’ve been waiting for. Stapleton is to easy to write off as a unique outlier. But if artists like John Pardi – who aren’t particularly special or novel – can sell well doing traditional country, than the mainstream labels will start moving back towards country.
When a Dierks Bentley is more commercially successful with Black than Riser, it tells music row to make adult contemporary country. If a John Pardi is successful with more traditional country, it tells music row to sell that instead.
June 17, 2016 @ 11:20 am
Pardi doesn’t have the voice for anything else, in my opinion. He is country or he’s not going to make it. The difference between him and Young and Corbin is that he doesn’t have the smooth, genre-hopping voices that they have. His voice is better than his early records indicated (listen to Borrowed Time from the B-sides album if you want evidence) but by no means can he crossover smoothly into pop/r&b/hick hop nonsense. I know that sounds critical, and I don’t mean it to be because I’m a big fan of Jon Pardi, but I do think it’s to his advantage.
June 17, 2016 @ 12:33 pm
Jason Aldean doesn’t have the voice for anything and that doesn’t stop the record labels from trying to make him part 80’s rocker David Coverdale and part 1990’s R&B slow jammer. Pardi will be whatever his corporate masters at the label tell him to be. I would love it if he can continue on with this 90’s country style and attitude, I just don’t see it happening.
June 17, 2016 @ 5:49 pm
Aldean might not be technically proficient but his voice is pleasant and unique. Nobody else sounds like him.
June 21, 2016 @ 11:45 pm
I’m not an avid fan of Aldean, but I enjoy his older music when it was still country. He has a good voice IMO.
June 22, 2016 @ 5:51 am
“Aldean. Nobody else sounds like him” Hooray! Couldn’t stick two of them!!
June 18, 2016 @ 8:21 am
To Motown Mike…: The end of your text make it sound that you are talking about Keith Urban’s latest album “Ripcord” . You write “I am sure on Pardi’s next album there will be plenty of drum machine, r&b and EDM and next to no country sound.. (I still can not believe that Billboard has “Ripcord” in its Country charts, but anyway…That’s Billboard I guess…(sighs…)
One HUGE Urban fan in Australia wrote to me recently that artists have to put out what…SELLS. Is it better to sell copies to mainstream music fans or to satisfy – in the case – of country music – country music fans by not doing / recording “drum machine, r&b and EDM and next to no country sound.”. So I do agree with you on the end of your text.
Although I have listened to Jon’s new album, I like it, but as Trigger stipulates, it is no Brandy Clark’s traditional kind of music.Still, Jon’s new album is much more real country than most of this “non country music that does pretend to be country music anyway” .
(And to my good and dear Friend in Australia, I do not think that Urban’s “Ripcord” has scored the “gold status” yet…in sales. Will it? I doubt it, but who knows…)
Many artists started by doing real country (Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, even Taylor Swift’s first album) were sounding country (to what country music is sounding like these days that is, and not traditional country for sure!).
I have noticed this week that even Billboard magasine does not say “New Couintry” anymore in its articles , but rather “Modern Country”.
I guess that “Modernism” is not my thing then…Not when I want to hear country music anyway.
Thanks Modern Mike for your post.
Sylvie.
June 17, 2016 @ 8:12 am
After listening to the album, I’m curious what they release as the next single.
June 17, 2016 @ 9:15 am
Pretty damn good album by Pardi. “Cowboy Hat” and “She Ain’t In It” are absolute gems. Those songs alone make this album worth the purchase. There is definitely tons of fiddle and steel guitar all over. A few that I don’t like as you mentioned but maybe they’ll grow on me. I am afraid Nashville will try to fuck this guy into going pop, though you just gotta hope that this album is really successful.
June 17, 2016 @ 9:20 am
Sounds like a return to your typical mid-90’s sound, but hey, that’s much better than what we have now…
June 17, 2016 @ 9:28 am
I really like the music, but for me his voice is very similar to a lot of the bro country, meta bro artists we’ve been hearing for the past few years, which unfortunately makes it harder to enjoy. But the songs themselves really are pretty good, especially “She Ain’t In It”
June 17, 2016 @ 9:58 am
Reminds me of the 90’s country that I grew up listening to, which made my morning full of nostalgic memories. Saw him in concert last fall, and he puts on one hell of a show too.
June 17, 2016 @ 10:57 am
One hopes that Jon Pardi is able to buck the trend of following trends for the sake of following trends. And I do think Trigger is dead right on this one: If country music is to be saved, it won’t be just one artist, or even two, or even five. I think it will have to be a fairly huge movement of male AND female artists and bands, akin to maybe something of what we saw in the late 80s and 90s in Nashville, or even what happened to rock and roll in 1964 with the British Invasion.
And for all the talk about the current “hot country” acts saying that country music needs to “evolve”, I would say that country music has always been able to evolve in the past, but it’s managed to do so while not forgetting its traditional roots, not only in small-town America, nor even in just the limits of the South, but in just plain RURAL America all over. In my personal opinion, it doesn’t seem like most of today’s “acts”, certainly not the Bros, actually understand that; their idea of “rural” or “small town” is a bunch of stereotypical redneck tropes that have little to no basis in reality. Here’s hoping that the turnaround is coming in a big way.
June 21, 2016 @ 10:14 am
You hit the nail squarely on the head there. I don’t consider myself a ‘country boy,’ even though I grew up on a farm with crops, hogs, and cattle. I consider myself a rural American. I want music that a rural American can identify with, that I can understand, that makes me feel something. The rural American is getting left behind, and forgotten about in this day and time, and growing up, I could find rural America on the radio, but anymore, it’s all gone to pot. While I’m not a huge fan of Pardi, I will root for him to succeed, because I see the value of what he’s doing. Now if only Mo Pitney could break through for good.
June 17, 2016 @ 11:05 am
I might have built this one up in my head a bit too much. Very inconsistent swings between his rowdy, fiddle-laden country from his debut and some pretty terrible shots at mainstream radio airplay. It’s disheartening to see the negotiations between the record label and artist play out so clearly on albums these days. You can tell with songs like “She Ain’t In It” he knows where he wants to go with his music and his live show also emphasizes these songs. Overall pretty disappointed and hope the album grows on me over time.
June 17, 2016 @ 11:52 am
“It’s disheartening to see the negotiations between the record label and artist play out so clearly on albums these days.”
Good way of putting it.
June 17, 2016 @ 12:49 pm
I agree with your sentiments. I found myself slightly disappointed in the songs that were not pre-released, but overall still a step in the right direction. Some of that is also listening to Luke Bell’s new album on the same day though. Still optimistic though because of “Head Over Boots” being the first single. He obviously fought for his first single to be an actual country song which is a good sign.
June 18, 2016 @ 5:35 am
“It’s disheartening to see the negotiations between the record label and artist play out so clearly on albums these days”
Are all record labels like this… Is this true with for example Columbia Records.
And is it not also a question of how the contract between the label and the artist
are written?
June 18, 2016 @ 7:10 am
Most major labels work differently for country music artists, especially the labels that are located on Music Row in Nashville. There is a huge difference between Columbia Records, and Columbia Records Nashville, just like there’s a huge difference between Atlantic Records, which Sturgill Simpson and Brandy Clark are on, and Atlantic Records Nashville.
June 18, 2016 @ 9:06 am
Thank you very much for your answer, I didn’t know there was any difference.
June 17, 2016 @ 11:29 am
Definitely a few disappointing songs, but overall about as good of an album as you’re going to find from a mainstream artist. “She Ain’t In It” is one of my favorite songs in a long time. “Out of Style” and “Cowboy Hat” are also awesome.
Also, if you haven’t seen Jon Pardi in concert – go do it. Puts on one of the best live shows I’ve seen, and Terry Lee on the guitar is phenomenal as well.
June 17, 2016 @ 11:58 am
Perfect. Solid, straight up C&W.
June 17, 2016 @ 12:22 pm
I like it. It’s a solid album from a good, young artist. I love all the fiddle and steel. While he isn’t Jason Isbell lyrically, not everyone needs to be. I love having artists like this to listen to as well. He’s a good artist to listen to when driving around, working, or when you have people over. His stuff is country enough for me to like it, while my friends can’t say they “get depressed” when I play it.
June 18, 2016 @ 7:51 am
Yeah let’s leave the Jason Isbell lyrics to Jason Isbell, it might make everyone happy.
To give my formal two cents, the song has my interest piqued.
June 17, 2016 @ 12:46 pm
Well shucks. I dun luv me some cuntry.
June 17, 2016 @ 2:02 pm
Side note the fiddler on the album is Jenee Fleenor, she’s part of Blake’s regular band & also has been playing with Stephen Tyler. But she writes her own stuff as well, and has some bluegrass music out. She’s really good.
June 17, 2016 @ 3:05 pm
I hate it.
Not the music. Not Jon Pardi… not the songwriting…
I hate how this is considered “a step in the right direction” or “at least it’s better than Luke Bryan” or “at least it’s Country” or “at least he wrote 8 of twelve songs.”
These are things for apologists to use to make things look good on paper.
is it good Country Music? ehh maybe… Jon Pardi is a a talented guy singing real songs about real life and I haven’t ever heard a song by him that I don’t like.
Is it a step in the right direction? of course it is… it’s loads better than most of what we’ve heard for half a decade.
Will I buy it? of course not. I don’t buy music just because it is better than worse music. By that logic I should buy lots of Easy-E because “at least it’s better than Snoop Dogg” and should by lots of Kiss albums because at least its not Nickelback.
I buy music because I enjoy listening to it. And Jon Pardi, though talented, soulful, authentic, honest, and hard to dislike as a performer, is just not somebody I see myself going out of my way to listen to when I could listen to somebody like Philip Quast or Jason Isbell instead.
Are they going to make inwaves onto the radio? of course not. But radio has to implode anyway in order for Country Music to be saved and we may well be making it worse for ourselves by fighting to make inwaves…
Maybe I’m just too negative, but I think the quality of the music will improve faster if we just take our Stapletons and our Jon Pardis and leave radio to wallow in their bro-osity until the market dries up and the whole system implodes, and then people like Isbell and Stapleton can build us a New Country Radio that plays the music we want… and that we’re just sticking our necks out for more bro-truck nonsense by trying to take the radio back instead of destroying it and rebuilding it.
either way, current Country Radio or New Country Radio, Jon Pardi belongs there, singing his songs for us folks who like real Country Music.
June 17, 2016 @ 7:01 pm
Fair enough. But as big of fan as I am of Isbell, sometimes I want to listen to some good working man’s country music that maybe isn’t as intense as Isbell. This is where Jon Pardi comes in. But then again, I’m a big fan of his.
June 20, 2016 @ 11:19 pm
I’m sort of on board with you creating a new country music paradigm. Isn’t there a quote by Buckminster Fuller about that, if the system is destroyed, don’t try to fix it, build a new one? I’m thinking this system is destroyed.
June 17, 2016 @ 3:11 pm
Haven’t given the album a full listen, but I’ve heard “She Ain’t In It”. Damn, that honestly might be the song of the year. I have no problem with a mid-90s country sound, especially today when it’s a miracle if you can even find real instruments in a Music Row release.
June 21, 2016 @ 5:15 am
Definitely song of the year.
June 17, 2016 @ 3:51 pm
I think he has a great voice for country/western music. It’s got a nice honky tonk whine to it, and it fits well with the musical arrangements.
June 17, 2016 @ 4:49 pm
I listened to ” She Ain’t In It,” and I thought the Ace In The Hole Band was backing him up! Damn good song. I like his voice, too. He may not be saving country music, but he’s damn sure helping save my hope for it. And that is most certainly a step in the right direction, as far as I’m concerned…
June 17, 2016 @ 5:51 pm
Really enjoy him as an artist. Some great points made as a whole in the comments here. Not a savior, but a consistent step in the right direction.
June 17, 2016 @ 9:07 pm
I gave this album a listen just because of all the people, people who I respect the opinion of, who were excited about this release. While it’s better than anything you hear on country music radio, it’s really not that good. It’s bland. Nothing about it inspires. I guess because he’s on a major label and doesn’t put out total bovine feces, that makes it alright.
June 18, 2016 @ 4:48 am
Well I mean there’s a difference in being excited for something and then actually coming to form an opinion on the actual subject. This album was my most anticipated album for awhile now but I have to say, I’m just disappointed. It’s mostly just safe, radio ready country with fiddle and steel. There are a couple exceptions which are damn good songs but I’m just not feeling this album. I don’t blame Jon, I blame the label. When you get Jon trying his best to be true to who he is mixed with disco beats in certain spots (seriously what the fuck is up with “Heartache On The Dance Floor”??) it just makes for a rocky listen.
I like Jon a lot, I can’t say I like this particular album.
June 17, 2016 @ 9:36 pm
Pardi and Bell are both rightly getting a lot of attention for new releases. Another one that seems to be under the radar a bit is James Dupre
June 18, 2016 @ 4:07 am
I guess this is a good thing to say, but Jon Pardi is my local singer. He was raised in Dixon, California: A small city within the county that I am in of Solano. It mostly consists of farmlands, and it is conveniently located within about 30 minutes west of Sacramento. The locals here do not take crap for country despite of it being all of what local stations play. We enjoy country music, and when Jon Pardi took the stage at a recent concert he had on June 3rd in Sacramento, we gave him a level of respect that we do not just give to any of our local stars. Sacramento is rough, and for us to go that rowdy over Jon Pardi, we have that connection over him and the music that he provides. In fact, before the concert started, a fan proposed to his girl while singing the lyrics for one of his songs. Yeah, I think Jon Pardi will make it far in the business, even if he will happen to be one of those personal favorite country singers among many of his listeners.
June 18, 2016 @ 4:21 pm
Listening to it for the first time right now and I’m really happy with it. A couple weak songs and some things you can nitpick, but overall you’d have to specifically go out of your way to be negative to say this is anything other than a good album.
June 19, 2016 @ 1:04 pm
I like it. Not as good as Up all Night, but several good songs. I love the title track. I agree with Trigg early Haggard and Strait feel ( minus the excellent voices).
June 19, 2016 @ 1:14 pm
I think they need to release Cowboy Hat as his next single. It’s so catchy that it’ll go big even with the more traditional arrangement.
We all know the label is going to push Dirt on My Boots, but hopefully we can avoid that as a single
June 19, 2016 @ 2:06 pm
I think this is a dropping of the ball. I liked Jon’s album Write You a Song. I’ve seen him live and it was killer. He has a great band and is electric in his own way. I think this album just doesn’t have the same qualities that made me pay attention to him in the first place. It’s a tightrope walk between, spheres of influence, an artists own needs, and what will sell. He seemed to navigate it well and I hope it pans out for him.
June 20, 2016 @ 2:28 am
For me, this album rates a 5/10, simply because exactly half of the songs are good to very good (songs 1 – 3; 7, 11 – 12) and the rest are just OK to bad. I like his voice and I like the primarily country instrumentation (some of the songs sound too much like mediocre rock songs), but some of the lyrics are not very good at all (too bro-country-ish). Examples: “put that feel good on my lips” from “Head Over Boots;” “a phone call turns into a ‘what’s up, what’s up'” from “Can’t Turn You Down;” and “girl, I want to roll you up and smoke ya” from “All Time High.”
Overall, although there are some definite weak spots, the fact that he is young and that there there is enough quality here leaves me optimistic that he will improve as he proceeds along in his career.
Luke Bell’s album is much, much better. I’m looking forward to a review of that one.
June 20, 2016 @ 4:37 pm
Boring record.
I’ll take “Tangled Up” by my boy Thomas Rhett any day of the week.
June 20, 2016 @ 11:26 pm
I dig “She ain’t in it.” It sounds like a country song! Yay! Great vocals, love the sound and heart.
June 21, 2016 @ 10:53 am
I saw him live last month and I am pretty sure he said “heartache on the dance floor” would be his next single. I looked at my wife after hearing it for the first time as eh was playing it live and shook my head. I did so because a couple songs prior he played she ain’t in it and I said, “now here’s someone who won’t buckle to country radio”. A couple songs later I’m eating crow. Thanks for the review, I mostly agree with it. As a fan I’m slightly disappointed but I’ll still have it in regular rotation. I think the B-sides album was much better!
June 21, 2016 @ 9:24 pm
i love what i’ve heard so far but i haven’t been able to buy a physical copy because none of my local music stores got it in friday so this will be the first album i buy on itunes for my new ipod
June 23, 2016 @ 5:56 pm
I’m flummoxed as to the acclaim this album’s getting for the most part.
Don’t get me wrong: I do appreciate Pardi’s insistence on sticking up for traditional country instrumentation. He has earned a great deal of respect from me for that, and his release of the B-sides EP last year demonstrates how far he’ll go to maintain some shred of artistic integrity that is laudable.
Still, this album feels significantly compromised, at least to my ears.
*
If anything, this album underscores how odd I find it that many here seem dismissive of Jason Aldean’s discography entirely (I’m convinced many here begrudge him off the singles alone), as well as consider Randy Houser’s “Fired Up” one of the very worst country albums of 2016 (again, it’s not a good album but, really? THE worst?)
Because let’s be honest: if it weren’t for the generous dose of fiddle and pedal steel, “California Sunrise” would primarily be exposed as a largely-generic bro-country album not much better than either of the two aforementioned artists’ most recent releases. About two-thirds of the album’s tracks are variations on the “work hard, play harder” theme or, more specifically, “Whew, it’s a relief I got that hard work over with! Time to get home to my sweetheart!”. Granted his take on this tired theme doesn’t come across remotely as douchey or even sleazy as many of his peers, but the songwriting still comes across as crassly written-by-committee and like a Diet version of David Davidson Songwriting School.
“Night Shift” joins the long line of titular puns that result in not-so-clever full-length songs. “Cowboy Hat” is like Thomas Rhett’s “T-Shirt” with country instrumentation. “Lucky Tonight” is something that could just as easily have surfaced on either Randy Houser’s “Fired Up”, the former half of Jason Aldean’s “Old Boots, New Dirt” or Easton Corbin’s “About To Get Real” and you couldn’t tell the difference. And then you have the triad already raised that easily makes up the most disposable additions of his catalog to date: rendered worse by phoned-in label interventionist production.
Obviously this album is by no means bad. The lead single “Head Over Boots”, the solid intro cut “Out of Style”, the romantic title track closer and especially the Alan Jackson-reminiscent “She Ain’t In It” alone are about worth the price of admission and prove his broader potential. And like I’ve said, I always have a soft spot for pedal steel and fiddle in larger doses.
But I have to say “California Sunrise” is not only a step down from his B-Sides EP and even his debut album “Write You A Song”……………….I have to admit I’d prefer the latter half of Jason Aldean’s “Old Boots, New Dirt” (minus “Gonna Know We Were Here”) from a songwriting standpoint over this as a whole. And I’m dead serious, mind you. “California Sunrise” mostly gets it right musically, but lyrically it’s a worrisome drop-off in quality.
*
I’m thinking a Decent to Strong 6 out of 10 for this.
June 23, 2016 @ 7:16 pm
I’ve been listening to this album pretty much on repeat for the last few days and I’m pretty darn happy with it. I really liked “Write You a Song,” loved The B-Sides,” and “Head Over Boots” has been a mainstay on my daily playlist since its release, so I’ve had very high hopes for this record. I think it has pretty much lived up to them.
It’s not necessarily the album I’ll turn to when I’m ruminating over my poor life decisions or existential angst. But it doesn’t try to be that. Instead, it’s the album I put on during a long day at work and it gives me something to sing along to while making the day seem less tedious. I’ll take that.
I’ll even go so far as to say it’s the first album I’ll listen to straight through without skipping a song in a long time. (“All Time High ” almost ruined it, but it gets better after that god-awful painful beginning. I’ll be quite alright if musicians never ever compare a significant other to a mind-altering substance ever again.)
Overall I’m just grateful for Pardi and what he brings to music. We’re the same age, so I definitely get his influences and I appreciate that. (In that sense, I’d argue that he is a significant generational singer because he’s definitely taking what we grew up on and making it his own.) While I’ll readily admit he’s not the best lyricist, he definitely has the charisma to pull off borderline bro-country lyrics, unlike Jason Aldean, FloridaGeorgiaWhatever, and the like because he seems like an honest to goodness good guy and not an opportunistic douche-canoe. And not necessarily relevant, but he knows his way around horses and wears a pair of pants better than any other Nashville country star, so he has that going for him.
Overall, I’d give it an 8/10. I really really really (like, really really) love him for putting “She Ain’t In It” on the record. I hope we get another B-Sides album, but in the meantime, I’m loving what he gives us on this one.
June 26, 2016 @ 2:31 am
Gotta say I wasn’t a huge fan of his until I won tickets to see him live with Brothers Osborne earlier this year. I was really excited to see Bros. again but then I left the concert a huge Pardi fan. He put on an awesome show and he sounds just as good live as he does recorded which, in my experience, is rare. I also won a meet and greet with him and it was cool. He seems like a genuine guy which I can imagine is also rare in the music business. I looked forward to this album since I saw him live in January and I am happy with it. I think the best song is “can’t turn you down” and I can’t even explain why. Just something about it caught my ear. Also he did an interview on his Twitter talking about each song on the album and he talked about “Dirt on my Boots” saying that when he got the demo for it it had a bunch of stupid drum beats and robot voices and he did his best to make it traditional country and make it his own. Kind of sounded to me like he wasn’t really the one who picked this song. Overall I like the album and even bought it which is really saying something because I don’t do that often. The only bad news is that he will be touring with Kip Moore this fall and I definitely will not be spending money on that. I can’t go to a concert where I know 50% of it is going to be garbage.
June 27, 2016 @ 4:26 pm
I really like Paycheck, Night Shift, and She ain’t in it. I know this is the Jon Pardi California Sunrise blog, but I have a few more thoughts about this whole pop/country thing. A lot of songs in current country, I actually like, like “Think of you” (Chris Young and Cassadee Pope), I’ll be the moon, Forever (Carrie and Keith), and Die a Happy Man. My biggest complaints are that these 100% sound like pop songs. Not country songs. I just wanted to be clear, that some of these songs are good songs. They just don’t sound like country to me.
June 29, 2016 @ 6:35 pm
Not a very good vocal, Would have been a good demo for George Strait, circa 1996.
July 20, 2016 @ 10:40 am
The single ‘HEAD OVER BOOTS ‘ is currently being played locally . This thing should go straight to the 2016 worst song list . The lyric is so filled with cliches and Dr Suess rhymes that they must have been written in crayon . OMG ….what a turd of a tune . And that Kruze-Kids vocal sound is the nail in this coffin . Fake country music is worse than no country music . It mocks tradition .
This song will be HUGE !!
September 30, 2016 @ 5:37 pm
”The first thing you hear on “Dirt On My Boots” might be a lonesome fiddle, but the usual suspects of poor songwriting Rhett Akins, Jesse Frasure, and Ashley Gorley do their worst on this song, despite Pardi and the band doing their best to country up the track. The song reminds you of something Jason Aldean would release”.
You got it Trigger. This is the latest single being played on local radio and I think I was wrong about the previous single . THIS one is worse and should also be on the WORST SONG OF THE YEAR list . Bro to the core . I haven’t heard the rest of the record but what I’ve heard is disheartening to say the very least .
August 30, 2018 @ 9:51 am
When Pardi does that refrain on the song Heartache on the dance floor – “Yeah, she’s moving through my mind (moving through my mind)” I want to vomit, stupid beyond words. God, I hate this song. Jon Pardi’s voice sounds like a P***Y.