Album Review – Sam Hunt’s “Southside”
If true country music is dead, then Sam Hunt’s DNA is all over the crime scene. As the man who single-handedly eroded more barriers between popular music genres than anyone else in the modern era, it is he who you can point the ugly finger of blame towards for the fact that most all modern music sounds the same regardless of what radio channel or major playlist you land on.
It’s been six years since Sam Hunt’s debut record Montevallo hit the streets. Six years is an eternity in music. In less than six years, The Grateful Dead went from performing 16-minute frenetic acid jams to playing acoustic country. The Beatles went from playing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” for screaming teens to releasing Sgt. Peppers. If you begrudgingly want to give credit to Sam Hunt for something, it would be for having the gall and intestinal fortitude to release EDM and urban talk-singing to the country market to a degree that had never been done before. Sam Hunt wasn’t innovative from a musical standpoint whatsoever. If anything he was derivative and predictable. He was just pioneering in how he marketed and labeled it.
Yet here Sam Hunt is a full six years later, releasing basically the same drivel as before, yet still receiving credit for being innovative, boundary-pushing, and genre-bending. Sam Hunt already bent the genres to the point where they’re now broken. And six years later, his ruse of releasing pop music to country feels even more derivative and dated. Give him credit for opening the floodgates if you want. But now there is an army of “country” artists hitting #1 in country with click tracks, culturally-appropriating Eubonic inflections, and bad writing. Sam Hunt is just one of many, while the performers who deserve credit for being boundary-pushing, innovative, and risk-taking these days are the ones who have the courage to sing actual country music.
This is just one way Sam Hunt shows a lack of growth on his second record Southside, which feels very much like Montevallo 2.0. It felt a little slimy to listen to Sam Hunt recite itineraries of club hopping and tail chasing back when he was 30. Now half a decade later, it’s even more slippery when he’s singing about trying to convince some poor girl to arrest her inhibitions to get drunk and screw because in the future she can chalk it all up to being “young once.” Hunt broaches similar subject matter in “Sinning With You,” which basically recounts high school sex undermining youth group abstinence pledges.
This is music for 15 to 21-year-olds, and commonly throughout this record, Sam Hunt proves he has the emotional immaturity it takes to write and perform such material, from the inane smartphone and social media references in “Hard To Forget” and “Breaking Up Was Easy in the 90’s,” to the outright downgrading and passive-aggressively misogynistic tone of “That Ain’t Beautiful” with its horrible talk-sing verses. Sam Hunt just seems to refuse to grow up, and judging from Southside, the center of his emotional universe is an iPhone and Instagram account.
Southside reaches its disturbing apex with the final song “Drinkin’ Too Much” that carries with it a level of specificity into Sam’s personal life that no person in the public eye should ever share. I’m not caught up on the details of Sam Hunt’s relationship status, but if I was the woman he’s singing to in this song, it would be the grounds for a restraining order, and an incredible sense of public embarrassment. When it comes to love, Sam Hunt seems to have the same emotional self-awareness of Michael Scott from The Office.
And of course all of this is going on while in the foreground is the most unforgivable electronic production elements and fatuous styling that immediately disqualifies this work as something suitable to label as being from the rural or agrarian portion of society or culture.
But to give credit where credit is due, Southside is surprisingly dark in moments when it comes to subject matter. Forget “Body Like A Backroad”—which of course was released three years ago and appears here, once again underscoring the dated and delayed nature of this material. There’s a lot about breakup and regret in this record. It’s just that it’s presented so poorly by how Hunt processes and communicates these emotions in such a shallow and immature manner.
And yes, there is a slightly surprising amount of “country” elements that made it on this record as well, at least for a Sam Hunt operation. The opening song “2016” is by far and away the best song Sam Hunt has ever written and recorded. You almost have to check the label to make sure you didn’t pick up the wrong record. Intimate, moving, and underpinned with steel guitar, if he delivered a whole record like this, we’d be having an entirely different conversation. But ultimately “2016” just proves that Sam Hunt is frittering away whatever genuine talent he might have on trend chasing and pop radio acceptance, and that he knows better.
In the six years since his last album, Sam Hunt has spent time adrift, pondering retirement or a career change, and at times alluding that even he sees the shallowness in his efforts, and feels trapped by commercial expectations. But any efforts to right the ship or fight back on Southside are fleeting—a little whiff of a steel guitar line or mandolin here or there, while the prevailing style is still something predominately or exclusively suited for pop radio, and the teen mindset.
Country music fans don’t cue up records hoping to be disappointed. Sam Hunt and Southside might be perfectly fine for the pop realm. But along with confusing the public about what country is and leading to conflict, Sam Hunt also chiseled the path for performers with inferior talent or appeal who would never make it in pop to follow the road to Nashville and call themselves country, where the genre’s supposed “gatekeepers” seem to be snoozing on the job. As long as it makes dollars, it makes sense to call it country to the money changers who’ve taken root in country music’s institutions. And we have Sam Hunt in part to thank for that.
But Southside is so 2014, even with the very slight and fleeting attempts to country it up. Since Sam Hunt first appeared in the country genre and did his worst, we’ve seen Chris Stapleton explode, Sturgill Simpson win a Grammy, Tyler Childers and Cody Jinks emerge, and Luke Combs become the biggest thing in all of country music. Their success is partly due to the backlash against performers like Sam Hunt, songs like “Body Like a Backroad,” and albums such as Southside.
Sam Hunt will sell some records, and radio will play his singles. But Southside will soon be forgotten for the same reasons Sam Hunt is remembered—for not straddling lines, but erasing them, along with the important diversity and variety of creative expression that makes genres important, and country a unique expression of American music.
Two Guns DOWN (1/10)
618creekrat
April 11, 2020 @ 9:11 am
Sometimes after reading one of these slams I’ll look up the subject on Apple Music so I can personally witness the train wreck.
This time I think I’ll go back to listening to John Anderson’s new one. That’ll be time better spent.
Rob
April 11, 2020 @ 9:17 am
Trigger this is not music for 15 to 21 year olds. This is music for idiots. I’m a month away from being 21 and I’ve been following this site nearly every day since 2014. Discovered Cody Jinks, Sturgill, Childers, Stapleton, Mike and the Moonpies, and countless others through this site. I can confidently say that me and most of my buddies would never touch a Sam Hunt record. I’m sorry though that my generation has ruined our perception to the world.
Trigger
April 11, 2020 @ 9:53 am
Look, 15 to 21-year-olds deserve music that speaks to their experiences and worldviews as well. I think that a lot of country music that isn’t this immature can still do that, and you’re a good example of that. However my biggest gripe is that when you have a 35-year-old basically taking the role of a 15 to 17-year-old high schooler trying to get laid in the back of his car, it’s just a bad look. You can be reminiscent back on those things perhaps. But putting yourself in that moment as narrator is just something a 35-year-old should never engage in. I’m no prude, but it’s just creepy.
Harris
April 11, 2020 @ 10:56 am
Funny how Sam hunt makes me appreciate Taylor swift who when she was 16 wrote songs that sounded like they were written by a 16 year old. Something kinda refreshing about that.
Mike
April 12, 2020 @ 8:01 am
You are right, Rob. This isn’t music for 15-21-year-olds. This is music for thirtysomething and fortysomething suburban moms, along with some men of the same age, who reminisce on their teenage and college years a little more than one should. Country music used to be about the struggles of everyday life. Now, it seems, since the suburban crowd has wanted to feel cliqued up and make drivel like this the soundtrack of their former lives, this will have no end.
Hey Arnold
April 11, 2020 @ 9:28 am
Got a girl from the Southside, got braids in her hair
– Is that how he named the album?
Also, Luke Bryan is the only country artist to delay his album release date due to the virus , while many others including Ashley McBride had to release theirs. Is this a luxury that UMG is granting Luke because I’m sure physical album sales will be atrocious during the lockdown. Good for Luke but I’m sad for other artists… They can’t fully promote albums on traditional television spots either….
I guess Luke Bryan is just entitled to different luxuries
Gabe
April 11, 2020 @ 11:16 am
Margo Price moves her album release from May 8th to July 10th due to vinyl production
Sven Weißmann
April 11, 2020 @ 9:39 am
1 of 10 points – could be worser 😉
Trigger
April 11, 2020 @ 9:46 am
The one point is for the song “2016.”
Kevin C.
April 11, 2020 @ 1:53 pm
Forget all the other signs of the apocalypse this year. The real clincher is that Sam Hunt put out a good song.
Melissa
April 11, 2020 @ 9:46 am
Most punchable face ever.
Atomic Zombie Redneck
April 11, 2020 @ 10:11 am
“2016” is heartless tease. It’s far better than it deserves to be, and in no way representative of the album as a whole.
Dan Morris
April 11, 2020 @ 10:16 am
I’m not really the violent type but I can totally get behind what your’re saying Melissa. That damn smirk is almost taunting someone to “Wipe it right off your god damn face, boy” as my dear departed dad would say. Personally I would pick those two idiots from FGL if I had to hit someone. Two Fists, Two Faces…the math works out good. lol Have a good and safe Easter everyone!
Fuzzy TwoShirts
April 11, 2020 @ 10:03 am
It sucks!!! And Shame on his fans. They’re dumb. Only a maroon with no goals would like this stuff
Matt S
April 11, 2020 @ 10:14 am
2016 is actually a pretty good song, which means it’ll never see the light of day on radio. This guy has the ability to make pretty decent country music if he tried harder. Makes me dislike him even more.
North Woods Country
April 11, 2020 @ 10:17 am
“2016,” “Nothing Lasts Forever,” and “Young Once” are really good songs. There were some really good songs on Montevallo. Unfortunately, so far only “2016” can be called a country song, though I must admit I quite like the fiddle in “Nothing Lasts Forever.” I think heavy pop influence can have country elements and not be awful, but it’s very rare occasions like this.
Sam Hunt is modern country’s male counterpart to Maren Morris. The voice. The songwriting ability. It’s all there, and he mostly wastes it.
On Maren Morris, “To Hell and Back” is the best song she has ever released to radio. No question.
Jake Cutter
April 11, 2020 @ 10:24 am
Ok haters. if you don’t like EDM / urban talk-singing, you don’t have to listen!!
Chris
April 11, 2020 @ 11:54 am
If he didn’t call it Country, there wouldn’t be any so-called “haters” here.
albert
April 11, 2020 @ 2:17 pm
” urban talk-singing “……
finally we know what to call this here-to-fore nondescript junk.
thanks for this , at least .
we were getting lots a lots of amateurs coming out to our jams who’ve been talk-singing for years . we just called them’ shitty ‘. but ok …I guess you could call them ‘ talk-singers .
this guy is another case of ‘no vision’ and even less artistic talent . he’s a talk-singing kardashian who contributes nothing of significance yet manages to feed off the world’s teet
by duping the mindless into thinking ”he surely MUST be contributing something ….surely ….isn’t he ?…..something ?? ”
Rammy
April 11, 2020 @ 10:28 am
Not surprised that once again the alt right of country music hates this new urban country gem. It’s provocative, interesting, and above all better than the vast tidal wave of drivel coming out of Nashville. This isn’t bro country. This is country for young adults who are trying to find their way in life and Sam Hunt speaks beautifully to that audience. A solid 8.5/10.
Trigger
April 11, 2020 @ 10:45 am
Imprinting political ideologies on people just because they appear to be different than you is bigotry.
Politics has nothing to do with this. If it did, I would point out that the term “urban” has been deemed racist when it’s referring to music.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/shortcuts/2018/aug/14/urban-time-stop-hackneyed-term-black-music
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8477079/urban-hip-hop-term-change
https://theestablishment.co/the-racist-undertones-of-the-urban-contemporary-grammys-category-e2559aeefe60/index.html
Jake Cutter
April 11, 2020 @ 11:03 am
The first positive comment for this album starts off with an ad hominem political attack. Imagine my shock.
sbach66
April 11, 2020 @ 11:58 am
A solid 8.5/10?
More like a solid deuce.
Jake Cutter
April 11, 2020 @ 1:22 pm
As in the kids dropped off at the pool kind of deuce?
sbach66
April 11, 2020 @ 1:34 pm
Yep.
UrbanCountryChiropractorPhysician
April 11, 2020 @ 2:03 pm
“Urban country gem”
Is “urban country” a real term? If so by transitive property “country”= rural (which is the opposite of urban, btw) making your statement as intelligent as using “irregardless.” It’s a phrase that entirely negates itself.
Just admit you like shitty pop music and change the dial. Ask your “artist” to do the same
albert
April 11, 2020 @ 5:23 pm
”urban country”
pretty sure this in itself is an oxymoron
services placement
April 13, 2020 @ 8:16 am
reply to albert’s comment: yep, urban country is no different than dry water or cold fire
North Woods Country
April 12, 2020 @ 12:21 pm
The beast way to describe Southside is this: much better than the purists think it is, much worse than the fans think it is. It’s a 3/10, but it would be a 5/10 if it didn’t have “Body Like a Backroad” on it. You remove that one abomination of a song and we’re looking at an impressive album if we view it without genre distinctions. Because it’s called a country album, it has to take the natural criticism that comes with being called country without being country.
Sam Hunt is not a major bad guy from a songwriting sense. His lyrics are generally clever. His ideas aren’t terrible. It’s just hard to execute “shit flung at a canvas” in the music format. He should pick a lane for the sake of sonic cohesion. That voice is the voice of a country singer. I hope he eventually makes a country album.
I Stan For Moe Bandy
April 11, 2020 @ 10:43 am
With six years between releases, I don’t think Sam Hunt can be accused of trend chasing. This is what he is. And really, the only problem is that we’re forced to decide which genre this gets funnelled into, and unfortunately it gets pushed to the consumer as “Country” with no caveats more often than it should..
Because for whatever it’s worth, this at least feels natural to Hunt? It at least feels like the music he actually wants to make – which is more rare than it should be in today’s Country mainstream..
If you’re going to blend elements of Country with pop/rap/EDM/whatever, I’ll take this over whatever was happening for a brief moment in the early 2010s with “Dirt Road Anthem” or “Boys Round Here” or “Kick The Dust up”.. That was far more of an embarrassment than Southside. And looking back now, that era feels more and more…insulting to Country music fans than this does.
John
April 11, 2020 @ 11:12 am
You’ve got a cold heart, and the cold hard truth’s:
I am a creepy, immature 17 year old who makes crappy EDM/pop that wouldn’t stand a chance in the market if not labeled “country”.
LB
April 11, 2020 @ 11:23 am
In the majority of Sam Hunt songs, it seems like he can’t determine whether he actually wants to sing or talk. That alone turns me away from his music in addition to the fact that it’s not even good EDM /pop/ country or whatever genre he is.
Peter Saros
April 11, 2020 @ 11:46 am
There is a joyful celebration to “Sinning With You. ” It is an honest confrontation with doubt. Listen to the song and resist interjecting motive or intent. Withhold judgement. Don’t mistake the song for theology but accept at is being a perfectly flawed human response to confusion. The character is wrestling with issues of faith and belief, right and wrong. He doesn’t offer answers but more importantly he does he want to peddle in shame and judgement. The song is intimate and real. And what’s more? The song is sexy. What he is doing, and what he is questioning, might be sin but he is going back for more. “There Stands the Glass” anyone?
The spirit of the song is a rebuttal to all the gatekeepers and line men of genre who represent the critical status quo. As such, the song is iconoclastic. Hunt writes great songs and won’t apologize for them. That they don’t meet somebody else’s expectation of how a country song should sound is as much a failure on the part of the listener as it the artist’s fault for not playing by the rules. And that’s the point. He is questioning the rules.
Sounds like a challenging country song to me. And that’s why I am grateful to be taking up the challenge on behalf of the song specifically and as Sam Hunt as country artist.
Trigger
April 11, 2020 @ 12:30 pm
“The spirit of the song is a rebuttal to all the gatekeepers and line men of genre who represent the critical status quo. As such, the song is iconoclastic.”
HA! It’s a song about fucking, written to appeal to the peak advertising demographic and the least common denominator.
“He is questioning the rules.”
Sam Hunt isn’t questioning the rules. Sam Hunt IS the rules. He’s an arch conformist that the majority of “country” artists in the mainstream attempt to emulate for commercial acceptance in the headlong effort to get country music to conform to the almighty monogenre blob where every song, album, and genre sounds the same. All hail!
I love the contortions non country music fans go through in the attempt to justify how the most un-country music by definition is indeed country.
sbach66
April 11, 2020 @ 1:36 pm
“…what you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response, were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
albert
April 11, 2020 @ 5:29 pm
I’m telling you ,,,,sam is in the bunker with all the other masqueraders and he’s laughing at you . if he could even think in the circles you’re suggesting he’d be a rabbi or a veterinarian .
Mike
April 12, 2020 @ 8:06 am
Sam Hunt is “iconoclastic?”
Seriously? Is THIS the hill you want to die on???
Derek Sullivan
April 11, 2020 @ 11:56 am
In a time in which Ashley McBryde and Maddie and Tae release new music I have no time to listen to crap like this.
albert
April 12, 2020 @ 3:57 pm
amen
Ghost Of Bro Countrys Past
April 11, 2020 @ 12:22 pm
Sam Hunt is a mad scientist. 2016 will blow up, win tons of awards, and everything else will be forgotten. 2016 will then make him the present face of country music. Where in the hell did that amazing song even come from? wow.
“So much for being just a bro country artist, look at this 2016 song, omg it’s like Tennessee whiskey but hip and not old farty!” Meanwhile all the other bubble gum crap on this album will be an afterthought
Hey Arnold
April 11, 2020 @ 12:51 pm
This album is better than “Tullahoma” by Dustin Lynch!
That’s no big accomplishment… But it’s something.
Baxter
April 11, 2020 @ 1:53 pm
Sadly 2016 is not the best song Sam Hunt has ever written because he actually has a writers credit on William Michael Morgan’s Vinyl
Peter Saros
April 11, 2020 @ 3:52 pm
I wonder if it is possible to consider Sam Hunt a true country music stylist. The perceived lack of growth and sameness to his sound on his first two albums might, in more generous hands, be celebrated as consistency and style.
It wonder what it looks like for a pioneer, if only in the marketing of a style, to be chasing a musical trend he is generally credited with creating. Would Bill Monroe similarly be charged with chasing trends in bluegrass? Didn’t Elvis bring gospel and rhythm and blues to a country audience and create a new style in doing so? Didn’t Garth Brooks bring arena and folk rock to country music in a way every bit as derivative and predictable as Sam Hunt brought EDM and urban talk to a country audience? Taylor Swift? Jimmie Rodgers? Country grows on the edge.
In terms of historical precedent, country music has frequently adapted its form/style to market to non country audiences, at least since the early 1920’s when Vernon Dalhart was doing it successfully for Ralph Peer. And the money changers were right there with him counting the scratch from record sales. Didn’t Chet Atkins describe the Nashville Sound to a journalist by reaching into his pocket and jingling the coins and change?. The Grand Ole Opy was a sales tool to sell insurance. My point is, the money changers are not new to country music. Country has always been the most commercial of “folk” music.
Is there reason for optimism for Sam Hunt as an artist on “Southside”? Maybe the strength of “2016” is evidence that Hunt is capable of offering more to the traditional country music fan base. Perhaps he is still refining his signature sound. When was the last time anyone in Nashville had mentioned Webb Pierce until Hunt sampled him? Doesn’t adding steel guitar to the mix, embracing darker more mature themes like regret and relationships falling apart, and just being able to hear acoustic guitars and fiddles suggest growth?
Maybe we should let him grow. Either way I am grateful for the talking point this album has provided.
Corncaster
April 11, 2020 @ 4:07 pm
He’s an artist, he transcends genre, and I would not be surprised if he has even done drugs!
Music is such a tapestry of styles, it’s like walking through a good mall. Like with Bombay Company and really exotic stores like Abercrombie and Fitch.
I am hoping his next album will more fully explore his interests in rap, death metal, and traditional Irish music.
Penn Central
April 11, 2020 @ 6:36 pm
Haven’t heard it yet, but drew a few conclusions from the cover. After all it’s the first thing you see on an end cap at Target. Not to many clues that it’s a “country” CD. White tennis shoes, tan chinos, plaid jacket. ImmaculateToyota Tacoma. Bland “back house” in background. Looks like an ordinary day in the Southside of any generic city. (I’m not expecting tumble weeds, a muddy F350, MoBetta Shirts, Wrangler’s, but really? Not even a Stetson (a real one, not the fedora’s that pass for cowboy hats these days😒))
” EDM ” – not a problem on an EDM record. Don’t expect that on. “country” CD.
urban talk-singing – what is that? Rap lite? My “auto tune” is on the fritz?
I won’t hate on Sam. It’s his perogative to release an adult contemporary/EDM CD. 😁🤭
Mike
April 14, 2020 @ 2:31 pm
Corncaster…
You had me in the first half, not gonna lie.
55Merq
April 11, 2020 @ 4:14 pm
How dare he use a steel guitar on this crap!
Gene
April 11, 2020 @ 4:30 pm
“where the genre’s supposed “gatekeepers” seem to be snoozing on the job”, This line right here explains the problem with Country music. There are no Gatekeepers anymore, Reba and Dolly while great Country artists in their own rights are too concerned being Cool Grandmas to say anything bad about the current state of Country Music and Garth only cares about his brand, Merl was one of the few that spoke his mind but it was chalked up by many as an Old Man out of touch.
Justin c
April 11, 2020 @ 4:37 pm
A majority of his pop songs tell a story at least, which separates him from the rest of the pop country pack
albert
April 11, 2020 @ 5:35 pm
”A majority of his pop songs tell a story at least, which separates him from the rest of the pop country pack”
can’t argue with this observation justin ……you’re right on all counts .
he’s pop , he tells a story and indeed he is separate from the POP -country pack .
and all that doesn’t help our cause in the least .
Ian
April 11, 2020 @ 6:57 pm
I read the highly positive review on Pitchfork the other day and have been waiting for this. Their review had a out the same level of ass kissing you would expect from a Joe Rogan interview not a music geek listening to an “urban country gem”. Thank you for (I assume) getting this right. I doubt I will interrupt my Steve Goodman deep dive for this.
wayne
April 11, 2020 @ 7:12 pm
Sam’s still around?
SavingMixtures
April 11, 2020 @ 9:17 pm
There is nothing conformist or generic about Sam Hunt — it’s the genre bending, the mixing, that country purists like you despise. Sam Hunt is doing something only Sam Hunt could do, and to suggest otherwise shows a lack curiosity about pop music and its many (yes, many) complexities, which includes country.
Mama&Trains&Trucks&Prison&GettinDrunk
April 11, 2020 @ 10:44 pm
Nah it’s just shit music.
witness
April 12, 2020 @ 3:06 am
Putting 2016 as the album opener then going back to his Montavello sound the rest of the album is ridiculous. An album full of songs like 2016 is actually a decent album
OlaR
April 12, 2020 @ 8:32 am
Predictable, boring, unnecessary, bland, meh…& no buzz about the release.
My guilty pleasure track: “Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90’s”.
Ashleigh
April 12, 2020 @ 9:41 am
I have to disagree on some aspects.
It was reported the song Sinning With You was a nod to the LGBT community. That’s what Sam said in a interview anyways. The songs premise is not just about sex but rather saying it may be a sin what we’re doing but it doesn’t feel like it with you.
That Ain’t Beautiful is not country at all. But it’s far from misogynistic. It may not be politically correct but it’s calling out a lot of things that’s going on with this younger generation. If anything it’s empowering women by telling them that is isn’t beautiful to cut up an adderall, go home with strangers, etc…
2016 is a great song and a very personal song. I’m glad he released it. It was probably a nod to country purist like on this page.
Sam uses different effects and styles in his music but is not the Antichrist of country music. Country music evolved dramatically especially since the 90s. People like Shania Twain are responsible for this. This younger generation is just evolving it a little more.
Ringszz
April 12, 2020 @ 6:40 pm
Lol.. after reading you’re review on “beautiful crazy” by Combs its hard to take anything you review seriously.
“Though there’s nothing wrong with the songwriting, and perhaps by today’s mainstream standards it’s downright Shakespearean, Luke Combs songs regularly use hooks that just don’t sink the way you want a good country song to…”
Wait.. what??!?!
This girl is beautiful crazy yet she falls asleep with a glass of wine on the couch??
she takes forever to get ready so she’s never on time for anything.. that girl? thats so CRAZY.
The hook doesn’t match up with the verses at all.. there is nothing crazy about the girl he is singing about. Pretty much the same with when it rains it pours.. aka when things go bad they always get worse type of deal. Winning the lottery and getting a girls phone number isn’t by definition something that would fall under the saying “when it rains it pours..”
I get you don’t enjoy sam hunts music. I agree it’s not country at all.. but I think a lot of people would disagree with you that his writing is mediocre.. regardless of its subject matter. And any counterargument from your end is easily dismissed after reading what you think about Luke Combs and his writing. The guys songs are crap.. and wouldn’t be nearly successful if it weren’t for his voice. That’s it.. And it’s also clear what you like in songs.. and that’s something that is as close to traditional country music production as possible. If the song doesn’t have that sound.. we get it.. you don’t like it. Because it’s clear lyrics really mean nothing for you, especially if its something you can not relate to.
But then again, none of this surprises me. You think “to hell & back” is “some rather tired but inoffensive adult contemporary fare speaking to her relationship with fellow performer Ryan Hurd”.. when in reality the chorus in that song is one of the best country music hooks in a while.. John Mayer is a pretty big fan.. but his opinion is pretty much irrelevant if it goes against anything you have to say. I guess thats why most artists and writers don’t give a **** what “critics” think about their music… Most of the time you have no idea what you’re talking about and it’s infuriating to know you don’t see that. You clearly do not have one ounce of songwriting talent in your body, nor the ability to see great songwriting and its embarrassing how much it shows.
***and to hell and back was written by three people.. pretty sure the song isn’t a first hand account of morris’ relationship with her husband..
Trigger
April 12, 2020 @ 7:39 pm
Um, the pull quote you used from me about Luke Combs and “Beautiful Crazy” was a CRITICISM of the songwriting. You know that, right?
“Most of the time you have no idea what you’re talking about and it’s infuriating to know you don’t see that.”
That’s sort of how I felt reading your comment.
Fat Freddy's Cat
April 13, 2020 @ 5:51 am
What the hell is “talk-singing”? Is that just another name for singing without the bother of carrying a tune?
Penn Central
April 13, 2020 @ 7:45 pm
Urban talk singing: 1) when the PC running auto tune quits with a GP fault 2) looking at pictures of Drake while strumming a banjo😁
Metalhead Jim
April 14, 2020 @ 5:28 pm
Leave the Night On. WHAT A TUNE!!!