This trend really takes no prisoners huh? For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about the ever increasing R&B sound in mainstream country music. Unlike its predecessor “bro-country”, R&B country infects even the good artists. Now, in 2014, I discovered two debut albums from males who I thought were going to bring some integrity back to the genre. Those two were Jon Pardi, and Eric Paslay. Jon has stuck to his neo-traditional sound quite nicely on his new single and is truly one of the good guys in mainstream country music. Eric however, is just another artist who has bitten the dust.
Eric had a very nice country-pop sound on his debut album that really shined on tracks like “Country Side Of Heaven”, and “Deep It Is Wide”. His album truly proved you COULD merge country and pop together quite nicely. And if that wasn’t your thing, he even had the traditional monster, “She Don’t Love You” to back it up. Well, forget that sound now, because Eric has truly crossed over to the dark side. Excuse me for incorporating 21st century lingo into this, but I just can’t. Seriously, screw this train-wreck. Let’s talk about the lyrics first. You know, one of the greatest assets on Eric’s album was the strong songwriting. As you can guess, that’s totally absent from this song, in fact, this song has some of the dumbest lyrics I’ve heard all year (you can read them here at your own risk). The theme is about going to a club……………….What, you were expecting something else? Nope, that’s it, story’s done. What the hell is up with country music and clubs now? Oh right, “evolution”. Give me a break. There’s references to Timberlake, Cadi-ing up a lac (what the hell this even means, I don’t know), and being high class because him and his “crew” are at a club. No, you’re not high class Eric, take out the “high” and the first two letters of “class” and you’ll have a picture of what you are in this song. I was honestly hoping there would be a Tom Petty reference just so I could call this the worst song of the year.
Do I even need to mention the sound? This song has the same pop/R&B sound that everyone is doing nowadays. There’s token banjos and acoustic instruments, but they’re merely meant to fool us into thinking this is country. This is a far cry from that country-pop sound I mentioned earlier.
Overall, this song is a joke, and easily one of the worst “country” songs I’ve heard all year. What pisses me off even more is knowing that Eric knows better, and is crossing over to the dark side. Maybe his album will be different, who knows. But for now, all we’re left with is this disappointing pop song.
Grade: F
Listen: “High Class”
Author: Zackary Kephart
Eric had a very nice country-pop sound on his debut album that really shined on tracks like “Country Side Of Heaven”, and “Deep It Is Wide”. His album truly proved you COULD merge country and pop together quite nicely. And if that wasn’t your thing, he even had the traditional monster, “She Don’t Love You” to back it up. Well, forget that sound now, because Eric has truly crossed over to the dark side. Excuse me for incorporating 21st century lingo into this, but I just can’t. Seriously, screw this train-wreck. Let’s talk about the lyrics first. You know, one of the greatest assets on Eric’s album was the strong songwriting. As you can guess, that’s totally absent from this song, in fact, this song has some of the dumbest lyrics I’ve heard all year (you can read them here at your own risk). The theme is about going to a club……………….What, you were expecting something else? Nope, that’s it, story’s done. What the hell is up with country music and clubs now? Oh right, “evolution”. Give me a break. There’s references to Timberlake, Cadi-ing up a lac (what the hell this even means, I don’t know), and being high class because him and his “crew” are at a club. No, you’re not high class Eric, take out the “high” and the first two letters of “class” and you’ll have a picture of what you are in this song. I was honestly hoping there would be a Tom Petty reference just so I could call this the worst song of the year.
Do I even need to mention the sound? This song has the same pop/R&B sound that everyone is doing nowadays. There’s token banjos and acoustic instruments, but they’re merely meant to fool us into thinking this is country. This is a far cry from that country-pop sound I mentioned earlier.
Overall, this song is a joke, and easily one of the worst “country” songs I’ve heard all year. What pisses me off even more is knowing that Eric knows better, and is crossing over to the dark side. Maybe his album will be different, who knows. But for now, all we’re left with is this disappointing pop song.
Grade: F
Listen: “High Class”
Author: Zackary Kephart
