Usually when an artist parts ways with their record label after releasing a slew of mediocre singles, a rebirth is in order. Jake Owen is one of Country music's most charismatic performers, so to see him try and emulate a sound rather than craft his own on songs like "Real Life", "If He Ain't Gonna Love You" and "Good Company" was disappointing. 

Unfortunately, joining the Big Loud Records team has made Owen's music even more watered down than it was before. "I Was Jack (You Were Diane)" may have what it takes to propel Owen back to the top of the charts, but it is by no means a good song. 

The reasons as to why that is are fairly clear too. For one, Owen joined back up with producer Joey Moi for this song, which explains why the chorus sounds like one giant blob of generic electric guitars and a banjo that ultimately makes Owen fight to be heard. His latest past singles may have had more of a funky Reggae vibe to them, but at least they had more color than whatever this is. 

Lyrically, you'd expect a song referencing the famous John Mellancamp song to feature at least another reference beyond the title. Heck, even Rae Sremmurd managed to sneak a reference in to the Beatles' "Day Tripper" on "Black Beatles." Unfortunately, this song is one long lazy summer romance song. Mentions of every single past cliche you could think of for a Country song in the past couple years are here. Whereas "Jack and Diane" actually had some details to it and was about something, this has none of those elements. 

Then again, if you couldn't be bothered to actually listen to the lyrics, I couldn't blame you. Why Owen has insisted on his this obnoxious talk-rap singing style for three singles of his now is beyond me. It's unneeded, distracting, and completely unnecessary, especially when Owen can't rap all that well (most Country artists can't). 

In short, "I Was Jack" is simply more of the same generic fodder we've come to expect from Owen over the past couple of years. Owen once shined at making these easy-going feel good tunes, and now he's either putting me to sleep with them or making me cringe at his delivery. This song may have Mellancamp's own seal of approval, but it doesn't have mine. 

Grade: D
Listen: "I Was Jack (You Were Diane)"

Author: Zackary Kephart

Hello folks, and welcome to the 2nd annual This Is Country Music 20 Worst Singles of 2014 list. This year, in addition to myself and sabre14, we have Pulse Music Board member zack97 contributing to our list. Without further ado, here are the twenty worst radio singles of 2014, as voted on by TICM contributors. Stay tuned for our Best Of list, coming soon!

#20
Little Big Town, "Day Drinking"

After "Your Side Of The Bed" and "Sober" under performed at radio, it was obvious that Little Big needed something upbeat and fun in the vein of "Pontoon" to catapult themselves back into top five territory. With that we have "Day Drinking". This song is lazy and annoying, the whistles throughout make it hard to enjoy, and do we really need more songs about how fun drinking is? It's an overdone topic as is, throw in a grating production and you have a mess of a single. - zack97

#19
Darius Rucker, "Homegrown Honey"

While "Homegrown Honey" was already a dull, unoriginal song to begin with, what makes it even worse is the fact that it's such a blatant attempt to return to radio after "Miss You" bombed. Bro-country is dead dude, get with the times. "Ooo, I dig the way that you move" is an embarrassing line. *sigh* - Markus Meyer 

#18
The Band Perry, "Chainsaw"

While "Chainsaw" is fairly unoffensive upon first listen, it grows worse upon each listen. When The Band Perry is on their game, they're interesting, and they hold up after repeated listens. "Chainsaw" is neither, it's boring, and it's grating. - MM

#17
Eric Paslay, "Song About A Girl"

This song spends three and a half minutes telling you what this song is not about but at the same time never going in depth about what the song "is" about. I'm sorry but Eric's song about "nothing", or at least nothing we haven't heard a million times before about a heartbreak queen rockin' the jeans before, if you ask me, and one I wish was never a single. - sabre14

#16
Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, "Somethin' Bad"

I expect better from both of these two. Lambert and Underwood have produced some of the most compelling material of the past five years, and this is what we get from their duet? Disappointing. This is all style, no substance, it's loud for the sake of being loud, and worst of all, it's pointless. Somethin' bad indeed. - MM

#14
Brantley Gilbert / Justin Moore / Thomas Rhett, "Small Town Throwdown"

This obnoxious piece of trash is easily the worst song on what was an otherwise brilliant album in Just As I Am. It's cliched, it's loud, and Thoma Rhett sounds terrible with his exaggerated twang. No thanks. - MM

#13
Maggie Rose, "Girl In Your Truck Song"

Maggie, why? When you put out three dynamite songs out to radio that barely make a dent with them its frustrating. So she thought that combining the names of a lot of famous "bro country" hits("Thats My Kind Of Night", "Chillin' It", etc.) would be a great idea. Unfortunately for her, this song doesn't work at all, largely due to the fact that the lyrics are lazy and stupid. Seriously Maggie. get on Maddie & Tae's side. At least they mentioned the bro songs cleverly and stood up for the females. - zack97

#12
Florida Georgia Line feat. Luke Bryan, "This Is How We Roll"

With this song came the same song and dance (literally) with FGL. A catchy melody but God awful lyrics. The overproduction is nothing new with them but the rapping by Tyler during the one of the song's verses was (on radio at least) and easily the worst part of the song. - sabre14

#11
Rascal Flatts, "Payback"

Sure, Rascal Flatts have had some bad singles over the years, but this one takes the cake. Gary LeVox sounds laughably bad here, as does everything else about this obnoxious, immature, and just plain bad "song". Apparantely country radio agreed, as it missed the top 20. You're better than this guys. - MM

#10
Jason Aldean, "Burnin' It Down"

The only country sounding thing to me in "Burnin' It Down" is Jason's vocals. This is more Pop than Kelleigh's song which is saying something. The production has more of a Hip-Hop and R&B feel than a country one. The lyrics are another look away moment. There's nothing "offensive" or "taboo" about saying "Naked in my bed". But the reason most don't use it, is because it sounds, well, stupid. Probably my least favorite Aldean song but most obviously disagree as it topped the Mediabase and Billboard charts for multiple weeks... - sabre14

#9
Kelleigh Bannen, "Famous"

I know country radio is trending more into the Pop sound as time goes on but "Famous" takes it to a new level. The chorus made me though I had tuned into a Hot AC station when it first came on the radio. Quite the change from Kelleigh's country sounds on her first single, "Sorry On The Rocks". Kelleigh has immense talent but "Famous" masks it. - sabre14

#8
Chris Lane, "Broken Windshield View"

A song about small town pride with an obnoxiously loud chorus? Yeah, that pretty much sums up this song. It's obvious he's trying to cash in on the bro crowd like Cole Swindell and Chase Rice did, but unfortunately, he's a little too late. Try again with a better song next time Chris. - zack97

#5
Joey Hyde, "Get It On"

This is a perfect example of what not to release as your debut single. "Get It On" is uncreative in every way, shape and form. The lyrics are unoriginal. The instrumentation is repetitive, and the production is overbearing. Not a good first step into country radio. - sabre14

#4
Florida Georgia Line, "Sun Daze"

The boys of Florida Georgia Line took it a little too far with this song. Getting stoned is nothing new in country music, but the problem with this song is that the entire song talks about NOTHING other than getting stoned, oh and getting laid (classy). I don't think anyone will be able to forget the infamous "pink umbrella" line. Ugh. - zack97

#3
Dylan Scott, "Mmm, Mmm, Mmm"

We've heard this type of song 100000 times. A guy thinks a girls so hot that he wants to express that by showing how it makes him feel and how country he is. This song is one of the worst examples of this, nothing but cliche country boy lyrics that sound so stupid. The title doesn't even have an actual word in it. - zack97

#2
Tim McGraw, "Lookin' For That Girl"

When I first heard this song, something happened that had never happened to me before - my jaw dropped in disbelief. I couldn't imagine that this was indeed Tim McGraw. It sounded like some awful computerized auto-tune machine sputtering out odd and strange lyrics. I never thought Tim would outdo "Truck Yeah" in the horrendous department but he did so with flying colors. - sabre14

#1
Jerrod Niemann, "Donkey"

I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said a million time about this atrocity. This is embarrassing to Jerrod Niemann, his label, the songwriters, the producer, and country music. Everything about this is just terrible. An absolute no-brainer for my most hated single of 2014. Jaw droppingly bad. - MM

It seems odd that a songwriter of Paslay's popularity, with smash hits such as "Barefoot Bluejean Night" (Jake Owen) and "Even If It Breaks Your Heart" (Eli Young Band) (NOTE: This song was also recorded as part of Lady Antebellum's 2011 Own The Night album) has never had success as a solo artist.

With "Friday Night" Paslay has likely found his first solo hit. And he does a hell of a job with it. I found the Lady A's version to be cluttered and loud. Paslay's version is filled with prominent banjo, keeping it firmly in pop-country territory without going over the top with pop-ness.

Because of the uncluttered arrangement, Paslay's soulful voice is able to be heard. The chorus is an earworm if I ever heard one and the melody is great.

It's not a groundbreaking lyric but Paslay and his record label do a great job with what will likely be Paslay's first top 10 hit.


Grade: B+

Listen: "Friday Night"

Jake Owen, how you frustrate me. You have such a good voice yet you insist on using it for the lamest material ever.

"Alone With You" was alright but "The One That Got Away" was a lame summer song that got old after one listen.

Owens latest is just as lame as it's precedor. The opening instrumental is blasting electric guitars, which doesn't fit the obvious intended mood of the song.

The hook of "I'll go anywhere with you" is lame, but the singles weak point is the opening verse.

"If your dream house is a double-wide trailer sitting back in the holler on a country road". It's not even a rural-pride anthem, yet it STILL manages to use that cliché as if it was one!

The production could use some toning down, as it makes this seem cluttered and doesn't let Owens skills as a vocalist to shine (though the chorus is a bit catchy...)

Though this will seemingly be another #1 hit for Owen, it adds up to nothing more than than a glossed up radio hit.

Grade: C

Dallas Smith- "Jumped Right In"

Passionate vocal performance and decent lyrics. Production is a bit clunky at times, but still a pretty good song.
Random thought: Dallas Smith sounds like Gary Allan.

Grade: B+

Edens Edge- "Swinging Door"

This neo-traditional gem will fit right in with catalogues of Chris Young and Easton Corbin.
I've also decided that "I ain't your swinging door" is a great hook.

Grade: A

Colt Ford (feat. Jake Owen)- "Back"

Quite a beautiful song. I know people won't like it because of the rapping, but Ford does a great job. Owens vocals aren't to shabby either.


Grade: B+