Category: Thomas Rhett

Single Review: Darius Rucker- "Homegrown Honey"

3/6/2015

My expectations weren't exactly high going into this one. I mean, how much good could possibly come from a song titled "Homegrown Honey"? And yet, Rucker still managed to deliver a failure of epic proportions.

This is a disaster on all fronts, but the lyrics stick out as especially terrible. Listen, as poorly written and mind numbingly stupid as lots of material from the likes of Florida Georgia Line and Thomas Rhett is, at least they make it seem relatable. They're young. They sell it from that viewpoint. When Darius sings it, it comes as off as creepy. The man is 48-years-old. 48! And he's singing "I dig the way that you move"? I know you're not supposed to judge the music off the artists themselves, but this is just unacceptable.

The production and melody are just as bad. Yes there's banjo, yes there's fiddle, but sounding country does not always equate to being good. From a sonic standpoint, "Homegrown Honey" is grating, while the melody is choppy and jarring.

I like Darius an artist. He has delivered some quality songs on multiple occasions. But nothing about this single is good, and should the rest of his upcoming album be anything close to similar, I will not be picking it up.

Grade: F
Listen: "Homegrown Honey"

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Worst 20 Singles of 2014

12/23/2014

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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

#15
Sam Hunt, "Leave the Night On"

This song shouldn't even qualify for the worst "country" song. It's anything but country. If you called it pop or R&B, then you'd be right. Now, I'm no staunch traditionalist, but come on. A line has to be drawn somewhere. The lyrics are nothing special either, just a song about a guy who is spending all night with a girl, hmm, where have we heard that before? Evolution of country? Please.
- zack97

#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

#7
RaeLynn, "God Made Girls"

People wanted more females in country music so god made Raelynn....unfortunately, neither she, nor this song are the remedy to the problem. "God Made Girls" basically states that women were made to be subservient to men. Great, nice step forward right? Ugh, to back it up too, her voice sounds so annoying that it makes this almost unlistenable.
- zack97

#6
Jake Owen, "Beachin'"

Sometimes I don't mind talking verses in songs, even country songs. They can be executed. Take "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" and "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues" as exapmles. But "Beachin's" verses comes off as awkward and unnecessary. I actually don't mind the production and the chorus is passable, but the verses absolutely kill any chance of being decent

#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

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Summer Single Round-Up

5/27/2014

2 Comments

Ah yes. Summer time. The time where anthems and up-tempos rule the airwaves and where ballads go to die. It is time for our summer single round-up.

Eric Church - "Cold One"

This was the standout from The Outsiders for me. At first glance it comes across as just another drinking song. But it's actually a breakup song. The production is funky but not overly thick and Church sells it. Good stuff.

Grade: A

Brantley Gilbert feat. Thomas Rhett and Justin Moore - "Small Town Throwdown"

I'll admit, "Bottoms Up" really grew on me, but I can't get into this one. Rhett sounds terrible on here (I actually usually like his voice) and the lyrics are ridiculously cliched. Solid performance from Moore but overall, meh.

Grade: C

Danielle Bradbery - "Young In America"

This is pure fluff, but good fluff. Bradbery sounds good here and sounds like she is legitimately enjoying herself. Production is restrained and an infectious melody. I can get into this.

Grade: B

Thompson Square - "Testing the Water"

Why? Just why? For an album full of fun, infectious tunes why this? A song like "Here's To Being Here" has so much energy and charisma. This is dull. I don't say that about much of Thompson Square's stuff.

Grade: C

Brad Paisley - "River Bank"

Lyrically clever, takes the interesting production traits of Wheelhouse and makes it a bit more radio friendly, a performance reminiscent of Paisley's early work. I was hoping it wouldn't be a copy of "Water". It wasn't.

Grade: B+

Florida Georgia Line feat. Luke Bryan - "This Is How We Roll"

The rapping here is crap. It seriously sucks. So do the lyrics. But I find myself jamming to it. It's catchy as hell. I like it. Can we forget I ever said that now?

Grade: B

Dustin Lynch - "Where It's At"

This is very, very average. Boring lyrics, boring production, boring melody, boring vocals, boring single cover. ZZZZZZZZZ.

Grade: C-

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Single Review: Thomas Rhett- "Get Me Some Of That"

1/29/2014

1 Comment

I really don't want to like this. I am completely against most of this intelligence insulting trend that has dominated the genre over the past year and a half.

Yet I actually enjoy this to an extent.

Yes, the hook is pretty bad. Yes, it mentions cutoff jeans and hot women. But it's a single I can enjoy listening to.

The overall vibe and structure is similar to that of his breakout #1 smash "It Goes Like This", but the production and melody is far superior, and is just so damn good.

Rhett is charming with his performance and sounds decent, and like Bobby Peacock of Roughstock said in his review, it's "more credible when coming from the mouth of a 23-year-old than, say, 37-year-old Luke Bryan".

Sue me.

Grade: B

Listen: "Get Me Some Of That"

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Single Review: Darius Rucker- "Homegrown Honey"

Worst 20 Singles of 2014

Summer Single Round-Up

Single Review: Thomas Rhett- "Get Me Some Of That"

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Single Review: Darius Rucker- "Homegrown Honey"

Worst 20 Singles of 2014

Summer Single Round-Up

Single Review: Thomas Rhett- "Get Me Some Of That"

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