Jason Aldean Just Released a Song Called “We Back”
He back, and as stove-headed as ever. Jason Aldean recently took time away from volunteering his head as a battering ram for the Southern Georgia Special Tactical Infiltration Unit – Narcotics to cut a few new songs for an upcoming record lazily entitled ‘9.’ Hopefully like a feline’s lives, this will be Jason Aldean’s last. But for now, he’s making us suffer through this new lead single, “We Back.” If you think your IQ just dropped simply from staring at the title, wait until you hear this sucker.
If it was the early 90s, and Jason Aldean was opening for AC/DC or a born again Ozzy Osbourne, perhaps this mess would fly. But this is 2019, and supposed to be country music. Where is the Prince of Darkness to bite the head off a Jason Aldean when you need him? Chainsaw guitar chucks and Hells Bells minor chords introduce a song that is just another fist-pumping arena rock anthem about performing yet another fist-pumping arena rock anthem, which has become Aldean’s specialty, or crutch.
This guy is stuck in a deeper rut than an F-250 wearing street tires trying to streak across a field of Texas black gumbo newly-tilled topsoil after four inches of fresh rain. Jason Aldean’s last lead single was basically the same song called “Lights Come On” from 2016. Wait, that was two records ago? Holy shit this guy puts out a lot of bad music. Either way, it’s the same old Jason Aldean crap about booming speakers, pickup trucks, chicks in tight jeans, and bringing the party. This is the kind of song you listen to after eating Wheaties garnished with EPO hormone the morning after your latest testosterone treatment.
This isn’t music for people who like music. It’s for people who want their entertainers to affirm their lifestyle. At least Aldean’s not back rapping (at least not yet), and the hair metal drums are handled by a human. But aside from that, “We Back” has a whole bunch of nothing. The only thing this song is good for is for College GameDay to come out of commercial breaks to, making you hang your head as an actual country music fan every Saturday. Sure, “We Back” gets the blood pumping if you’re into that kind of thing. But as a country song, it’s about as handy as a football bat.
Jason Aldean has some good songs. That “Drowns The Whiskey” duet with Miranda Lambert a while back wasn’t half bad, and when he gets into material about dying farm towns and the like, it can be pretty interesting. You also hoped that maybe he would look to join the movement to more country-sounding material that many of the mainstream guys are making, or that maybe the experience at the Route 91 Harvest Festival massacre may turn him more introspective. But no dice, at least not in this song. He’s just kind of a shallow dude, and “We Back” underscores this yet again.
1 1/2 Guns DOWN (3/10)
September 11, 2019 @ 9:23 am
Trig you are one funny dude.
Seems to me Aldean puts in the bare minimal amount of effort into his career at this point. He doesn’t write any of his own songs. He gets songs pitched to him and he’s like – “This one will work”. He only cut Drowns the Whiskey because he wanted a song with Miranda and she refused to appear on the original song he sent her. So that required a bit of effort on his part to find a more country song. It’s too bad really because his early stuff is quite good.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:16 am
hold on Lisa this is relly a good song its ole jason callin a spade a spade hes sayin gurl I no wut yur about but that dont bother me come n spend a few hours with me u no Im lonly yur lonly I dont care wut yur back ground is Im on the hunt n so are u u want wut I got n I want wut u got thats wut jason was sayin all of his songs u look at evry song
September 11, 2019 @ 1:41 pm
Kinda dig this strange Keith Whitley reference name 😂
September 11, 2019 @ 3:19 pm
This was painful to read…
September 15, 2019 @ 8:34 pm
poetry … philosophy … the height of culture
September 11, 2019 @ 2:58 pm
You might say he’s not very “songwriterly”
September 16, 2019 @ 12:14 pm
Line of the year !
This guy is stuck in a deeper rut than an F-250 wearing street tires trying to streak across a field of Texas black gumbo newly-tilled topsoil after four inches of fresh rain.
November 25, 2019 @ 7:02 am
New best line— it’s not music for people who like music, it’s for people who want their entertainers to to affirm their lifestyle. Holy crap! The most insightful comment on today’s ‘country’ music I’ve read.
September 11, 2019 @ 9:24 am
The Kenny Powers of country music.
September 11, 2019 @ 9:45 am
He isn’t that cool
September 11, 2019 @ 6:52 pm
Kenny Powers was at least good pitcher. What good is Aldean?
September 12, 2019 @ 12:55 pm
“Artist of the Decade”. Ugh…
September 12, 2019 @ 5:31 pm
Man, if that isn’t THE indicator of what a shit decade this has been for country music…
December 17, 2019 @ 8:58 am
Country music has really gone to the dogs. Never mind, the dogs doesn’t want to listen to it either. This is so horrible. Jason Aldean was good when he first came out. What happened? He needs to go crawl under a rock with a lot of so called country music artist and listen to some real country music. I’m saddened.
September 11, 2019 @ 9:25 am
Spotify let me know he had 4 new songs from 9. I had hoped they would be okay, based off Drowns the Whiskey, but I don’t think I made it more than 30 seconds into each song. They are good awful garbage. Aldean has a handful of songs I like, but this sure ain’t it. Here’s hoping it’s the last we have to hear from him.
September 11, 2019 @ 9:29 am
“This isn’t music for people who like music. It’s for people who want their entertainers to affirm their lifestyle”
that sentence can be said to most of the people running around my small town with this kind of music turned up, I couldn’t label what exactly was going on but you did. They are not music lovers, they just want to show off their lifestyle even more with this shitty music.
well said you hit the nail on the head. I had to turn the thing off before finishing this sentence. What a disgrace to country music.
September 11, 2019 @ 11:18 am
Trigger, I’ve always thought of you as very insightful, but that explanation was even better than your already high standard. I know so many people who listen to music for that exact reason, not because they even care about what it says, but what it might say about them.
September 14, 2019 @ 1:16 pm
Amen, Adam, and amen, Trigger.
Precisely — this genre offers a soulless soundtrack for a soulless lifestyle.
September 14, 2019 @ 11:47 pm
I live by music so on that note you don’t like the song guess what change the mother fuckin station dumb assess, I listen to it all if ur really into music you would appreciate each song for what it’s saying…….
September 11, 2019 @ 9:34 am
Jason Aldean is for basic people who want to live on the surface of life.
September 11, 2019 @ 11:09 am
Not sure it’s even that deep…
September 11, 2019 @ 12:12 pm
He’s a Walmart Cowboy
September 11, 2019 @ 7:56 pm
He’s a Walmart douchebag. What a fuckin joke this greasy worm in too-tight clothes is. Ugg. Puke.
September 12, 2019 @ 9:54 pm
His next album should just be called ‘Walmart douchebag”
September 11, 2019 @ 9:39 am
I like it. Sorry if that don’t fit the narrative you guys want to hear. And since then did every county artist have to write their own songs for it to be good.
September 11, 2019 @ 11:45 am
I do not think anyone thinks you need to be sorry, everyone has different taste and the world would suck if we all liked the same things! With that said, you are on a site for real country music and when I say real I mean country music that follows the roots more than what you hear on most country music radio and with that said this Jason Aldean song is not country music as we are trying to voice out, not even close. I am sure there are MANY websites were you can blog away about the music you like, it is just too simple and soul-less for us.
September 11, 2019 @ 2:15 pm
If you like it, no problem. It’s when you start calling it country that have a problem.
September 11, 2019 @ 9:44 am
This made me laugh, so something good came of all this I guess.
September 11, 2019 @ 9:47 am
Jason Aldean has always been a mixed bag. He releases songs like this, but is always good for some really good album cuts such as Asphalt cowboy, The Truth, Fly Over States etc. Just have to filter out the bad.
September 11, 2019 @ 12:14 pm
I always thought Aldean was the type of bag you find in the seat compartment on an airplane.
September 11, 2019 @ 9:48 am
Hell Right, We Back.
I’ve listened to enough bad cover guitarists over the last 30 years to recognize someone’s “close, but not quite there” version of the intro to Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” when I hear it, even when played on an electric guitar with distortion. Never thought anyone would be lame enough to include it on a recording to be released as a single, though.
September 11, 2019 @ 1:44 pm
“Hell Right, We Back”….
I just threw up imagining that Frankenstein’s monster of a song combining those two abominations.
September 11, 2019 @ 9:55 am
I really don’t even understand what they’re going after. If they wanted to do the whole blaring stadium rock guitar riff thing (which Aldean has done plenty), why not actually use a real drum kit? It’s like they were purposefully trying to piss me off with every choice in this song.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:05 am
For every good song, Aldean cuts 10 terrible ones. It’s like he is stuck in an Ed Hardy ad from 2008. Maybe this song can be donated to a local strip club.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:10 am
DUN-DUN DUN-DUN DUN-DUN BINANIN
If that ain’t country…
Though it’s better than Sturgill’s latest rock effort. I can’t believe that’s a sentence.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:11 am
At least he’s better than Kane Brown and Sam Hunt.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:30 am
I agree. Really, the worst part about the song is how it’s just strait up rock with rehashed lyrics. I can understand how some enjoy it though. It elevates the pulse.
September 11, 2019 @ 1:47 pm
I disagree, Trigger. The absolute WORST part of this song is his bullshit pandering/ name dropping nonsense. It’s insultingly bad and gives me second hand embarrassment.
September 11, 2019 @ 5:29 pm
I don’t wanna overplay my hand here, but reading the lyrics almost makes me feel as though the writers ate a can of alphabet soup.
September 11, 2019 @ 1:11 pm
Kane Brown and Sam Hunt wouldn’t exist if this piece of shit had not broke the doors open for them
September 12, 2019 @ 8:33 am
All of them exist because the market calls for it. It’s the result of deregulation of radio and tv allowing corporate entities to own multiple outlets in the same market. Iheartmedia owns over 850 stations alone. Cumulus owns over 400… The corporate media controls who gets played, what gets played, who gets signed, who makes it and who doesn’t.
September 13, 2019 @ 7:21 am
If that’s true, you’d think they’d at LEAST push better music than this tripe!!!!
September 13, 2019 @ 7:32 am
It’s all about the $$$. They don’t care about quality, or better said, our version of quality. I live in New England, country over air radio here is non existent.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:18 am
Ok, where to start..hmmm….he name checks Marshall Tucker Band …then quickly after mentions a telecaster plugged in to a Marshall stack, while also name dropping AC/DC. Here’s where I’m throwing the penalty flag!
First off, Marshall Tucker Band wrote music that didn’t suck. Their songs meant something. Secondly, Marshall Tucker Band didn’t use Telecasters. Toy Caldwell played big fat Gibson Hollow bodies like the ES 335. And he wasn’t a Marshall guy that I’m aware of.
3rdly, AC/DC are absolutely not Telecaster slingers either. Angus likes Gibsons, specifically the SG. His brother Malcolm didn’t use Telecasters either. The big rock and roll sound Aldean wishes to emulate is a Gibson plugged into a Marshall.
No self respecting Telecaster master is plugging into a Marshall stack. More likely a fender amp, either a vintage silverface or newer blackface tube anp.
So what we have is Aldean or some group of writers talking about things they literally know nothing about. No cred points awarded here Jason. I’d suggest doing your homework before embarrassing yourself. But, hey, rock on Bro!
September 19, 2019 @ 11:52 am
Thank you, I was coming here to go on a Marshall Stack / Tele rant but you beat me to it!
Jason’s minor key / dropped D “party” songs have always confused me. Why do people like him and Brantley Gilbert always sound so ANGRY and confrontation whilst partying? Talk about being would tight. The parties they attend probably have a 110% chance of violence from rednecks trying to prove how tough they are. Awful.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:23 am
jesus he is a tool
September 11, 2019 @ 10:38 am
Now I ain’t scared of shit, but this is the type of song playing full blast on the touch tunes during fights in run down bars 40 miles from the closest interstate filled with illegal scrappers and poachers where you could get smacked with a catalytic converter.
September 11, 2019 @ 7:58 pm
You preach the truth there brother.
September 12, 2019 @ 3:54 am
Touch Tunes 40 miles from the interstate. Man, I’m getting old. Are there juke boxes any more?
And the truth is ‘The Truth’ is his last good song, IMHO.
But back to this release, I do think he’s stuck. His fans won’t let him go ‘Back’. He’s made his rut and can’t get out–he’d better just stay on it and keep from getting buried. Just stay out of my back 40, buddy.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:42 am
I knew when I saw the title “We Back” that this was going to be awful. Bro country is dying but this guy is going to hang on kicking and screaming. This is the kind of dumb anthem that is supposed to be listened to by a guy drinking beer with the boys before he meets up with a little tan legged Georgia thang and takes her out into the corn field in the bed of his truck. Cliched garbage.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:45 am
Funny thing is radio will play the crap out of it and it will probably be a number one. Al his music sounds alike to me except drowns the whiskey which I loved..but in reality some of the best songs never chart..
September 11, 2019 @ 11:03 am
Don’t know his work?
Is he a country western artist?
Is he the guy that had some bars that went belly up?
September 11, 2019 @ 3:43 pm
consider yourself one of the lucky ones , dennixx
September 11, 2019 @ 11:57 am
Oh heck yeah!!! Some real down-home country music for all us SEC homers. Can’t wait to be bumping this on our show!!!
September 11, 2019 @ 12:23 pm
some background of bon jovie instrument with weak lyric and some questionable noise. It could have been a much better rock song. I would say that the part of the song is not terribly bad (in my opinion) but it goes downhill after that.
A rock song but was much better was “they don’t know”.
September 11, 2019 @ 12:26 pm
This is just a better written, male version of that shitty CU song – Southbound. That song makes my ears bleed.
September 11, 2019 @ 12:52 pm
Not a fan of his voice or his persona. Speaking of Drowns the Whiskey and Miranda why is everybody ignoring she’s got half an album out with another song on the way? Other people’s songs get reviewed but not hers.
September 11, 2019 @ 1:38 pm
I think it’s because at this point, Trig rather listen to whole album in it’s completion rather than analyzing each song. He’s probably made a conscious decision to not listen to most of the promo singles. As a fan, I can’t help but listen to them all. I don’t know why we have to wait until November for the album. Seems all very unnecessary when half the album is basically out, but whatever. I know Miranda isn’t making the decisions on that part. If it were up to her, the album would have been released back months ago.
September 11, 2019 @ 1:50 pm
Limited resources I would imagine… not everyone/everything can get reviewed right away.
September 11, 2019 @ 3:28 pm
Nope, like the other person (hope…) said trigger (like me) would rather listen to a complete body of work and hear the story the artist is trying to convey than bits and pieces which most times are not indicative on the direction of the album. By the time the album is released, people already have favorites based on the pre-released songs. Sometimes they are not exactly the best songs (on the album) so they turn people off the project before the album is released.
September 11, 2019 @ 3:37 pm
It doesnt help that the songs she’s released so far suck.
September 11, 2019 @ 1:11 pm
Look ma, Guitar Solo Helper!!! (takes it off the shelf)
September 11, 2019 @ 2:16 pm
Thoroughbred
Hahahaha…..heeeeeheeeee…..good one dude. That’s funny…I’m actually chuckling out loud and I’m slightly jealous I didn’t come up with that!
September 11, 2019 @ 1:40 pm
Me talking to other 20’s year olds: Yeah I listen to country
Other 20’s year olds: like Jason Aldean and Kane brown?
Me: *contemplates drinking bleach as a single tear rolls down my face*
September 11, 2019 @ 2:25 pm
With a title like “We Back” I expected this to be another culturally appropriating, faux-Urban Trap number. Apropos coming from a guy who dressed up in blackface for Halloween, considering it’s the musical equivalent of blackface. What it is is, of course, no better. It’s like he can’t make up his mind whether he wants to be Post Malone or Axl Rose. (Too bad wanting to be George Strait apparently isn’t an option.) And it’s frustrating because we know he is capable of better (“Amarillo Sky”, “Drowns the Whiskey”).
And I can’t fathom why so many women think he’s sexy. He does nothing for me. Luke Combs not only makes better music, he’s better looking in my opinion.
September 11, 2019 @ 6:01 pm
(Too bad wanting to be George Strait apparently isn’t an option.)
My laugh is ever so rueful. It really sucks. I was a big fan of “Amarillo Sky” and “The Truth.” The dude obviously knows good songs. He just chooses not to record them.
September 12, 2019 @ 5:19 am
This is what I can’t understand. He is one of the top mainstream artists. There are some great songwriters in Nashville that I’m sure would love to have a cut on his album. This is the best he could come up with? I just don’t get it.
September 11, 2019 @ 2:38 pm
Is it really that bad?
Was thinking, “you know, this isn’t really as bad as…” and then that cheesy ’80s hair band solo took off, and I couldn’t stop laughing.
Then Trig’s prince of darkness line had me laughing again.
But Lil Dale’s new screen name takes the cake!
September 11, 2019 @ 3:21 pm
“This isn’t music for people who like music. It’s for people who want their entertainers to affirm their lifestyle.”
Wow… strong. So true.
Ps. Other than that deep ass thought this write up was otherwise hilarious. Poor Jason.
September 11, 2019 @ 3:37 pm
couldn’t someone in his camp have corrected him ? ( ” Jason …it’s ‘we’RE back’ ….not ‘WE back’ . ‘WE back’ is what babies say ” ) before he recorded this .
And couldn’t his producer have said to him ” Jason …don’t record this ”
And could someone explain to me what the f### it even means ? I gave it nearly a minute of my life !
What’s that …..he MEANT to say ‘ WE back ‘ ..???
oh …….never mind .
September 11, 2019 @ 3:56 pm
The best parts are the echos in “what my mama said (mama said)” and “what my daddy did (daddy did)” hahaaha
September 11, 2019 @ 4:08 pm
Well, he certainly lives up to expectations.
Too bad they’re so low.
I gotta admit to having a soft spot for the guy’s love of hard rock and metal. That’s not a bad group to bring into country music. There’s kinship there. Country used to be full of kick ass guitar players that got the sincere respect of shredders. Now the shredders just point and laugh.
I don’t fault Aldean for pushing country a little further down the line of rock that Waylon and his band set out. He just doesn’t seem to know or care enough to know when he’s crossed the line and turned country into something else. It’s just business to him.
Seriously, what is there to really *like* about this guy? He always looks like the kid in day-care who pooped his pants.
September 11, 2019 @ 4:32 pm
When this guy released Amarillo Sky, I thought he had the right stuff to keep it country, but as someone else said, for every good time he’s had we’ve had to endure some serious shitburgers.
September 11, 2019 @ 5:26 pm
Life is short. Verbs are hard.
September 11, 2019 @ 5:41 pm
Aldean is who is who he is. At this point can any of us be surprised?
It’s clear he has ZERO actual personality.
He doesn’t write any of his stuff, so he’s got no input of his thoughts or zero personality to inject to it. Honestly after ALL of these albums can anyone really say anything about who he is? It’s amazing how little, now nothing of him comes across. Well unless that’s the point that there is nothing to come across.
A while back Trig posted about the idea of Aldean, Luke Bryan etc are just big marketing tools (pun intended). Stand up and play your same music year to year, concert to concert, make money, and roll on.
There’s no evolution in Aldean music. It’s rehash sound and We Back might as well have been a rejected cut from any of the past 4 albums. The one time he did change (I won’t say evolve) is the album with the extra electric beats and elements to it that are more offensive than We Back, Lights Go On etc (we just burning it down anyone?). I used to really like Aldeans stuff too, but he’s just gone sideways for soooooo long.
September 11, 2019 @ 6:54 pm
If bleached tips had a sound, this would be it.
September 11, 2019 @ 8:06 pm
I’ll start with a compliment that I appreciate all you do to help save country music, because it does need saving. However, you’ve struck a nerve. Music for those who don’t like music huh? Well I like music, and I’ve been a fan of Aldean for a decade now; ever since big green tractor to be exact. By the way I’m just as likely to listen to Alan Jackson or George Strait too. Aldean’s music has been there for me in the best of times, the worst of times, and everything in between. His music keeps me going when the going gets tough, and that’s why I willingly come to his defense against traditional country fans. Your critiques of him are mostly fair, sometimes excessive, but to throw his fans (which I am one) under the bus as if they don’t like music crosses a red line in my humble opinion.
September 12, 2019 @ 4:48 am
I like some of aldean songs too. But we have to admit that this is quite shallow.
September 11, 2019 @ 10:23 pm
You’re hell right we back! Yee haw!
September 12, 2019 @ 7:15 am
Aldean has a decent voice and he’s fully capable of doing good country songs, but too often he chooses lazy arena anthems that all sound alike.
September 18, 2019 @ 7:29 am
I don’t get it. His first 3 albums were stellar, his 4th and 5th were more rock oriented but still had numerous great songs. Since album six, the great songs are few and far between. For singles, “A Little More Summertime” and “Any Ol’ Barstool” are the only great singles he’s had in the last 5 years. “Drowns the Whiskey” is formulaic and boring. Of the new songs, “I Don’t Drink Anymore” is excellent. If he’d only ditch the electronic beat. As for deep cuts, I think the best song he’s done since the Night Train album is “Don’t Change Gone.”
September 12, 2019 @ 8:57 am
Always wanted to beat this guy ass and would if the so called “tough” country guy didn’t have his security to jump to his aid
September 12, 2019 @ 12:07 pm
someone needs to write a song about opposites attracting or why a relationship didn’t work, I will give them this lyric, “She said ‘I love Jason’s songs, you know what I mean’, but I thought Isbell and she meant Aldean.”
September 12, 2019 @ 8:40 pm
Also, I listened, you know, just so I could give it a fair shake.
About a minute and a half in, I said “screw this” and went and turned on Helloween.
September 13, 2019 @ 6:56 pm
I don’t like a lot of what Aldean does but it’s easy to understand why he’s so popular and has been on top of the heap for so many years. He excels at anthems that elevate the passions of his listeners, this being a good example of one. Has it been the same thing every time for almost 15 years now? Yep, and his fans still know exactly what they’re getting. It’s kind of like comfort food in music form. He’s a stable presence. It might sound odd but that’s the best way I can describe his music.
September 14, 2019 @ 7:11 pm
Yeah, you pretty much nailed it.
September 13, 2019 @ 8:48 pm
Out of the four pre-album songs so far, I think I enjoy ‘I Don’t Drink Anymore’ the best. It’s at least got some steel guitar and sounds decently country in my opinion. Better than ‘We Back’, which, by the way, was co-written by Tyler Hubbard. Not surprised by that notion just based off of the title.
September 16, 2019 @ 1:45 pm
I often wonder why record labels don’t intervene more than they do in situations like this. You’d think the head of A&R, or even the president, would say – “OK Jason … we heard this on your last record, and the record before that, and the record before that, and the record before that. Could you PLEASE give us something we haven’t heard, anything?” I’d love to hear Jason sing a song like “Humble & Kind,” or even something lighter-hearted like “I’ll Name the Dogs.” Not saying those specific songs fit his brand – just saying it would be nice to hear him attempt something other than girls, a Friday night and a small town. Luke did it with “Most People Are Good,” Chesney has definitely run the gamut of subject matter. I’m not sure why Jason doesn’t take a cue from his genre colleagues.
September 19, 2019 @ 3:52 pm
I listened to it….typical Jason Aldean lead single. Not surprised or impressed. I’ll go listen to Paul Cauthen’s new record, which is damn good, by the way. Any chance of a review on that one, Trig?