Kelsea Ballerini's "I Hate Love Songs" presents a fascinating, unique problem - a song that sounds confusing and grating in the context of the album it's in sounds great as a standalone song.
If anything, it might even just prove that albums are never just collections of singles no matter how hard they try. While "I Hate Love Songs" is literally sandwiched in between love songs on Unapolgetically, on its own it's better than I gave it credit for.
I'm not a huge fan of the waltz craze in Country music right now, mostly because most of the songs adopting it are schmaltzy or bad for some other reason. With this song, the waltz beat has a very relaxing, retro atmosphere to it, creating something that excellently matches the lyrical content.
Speaking of lyrical content, this song is clever and humorous in the way that it debunks romantic cliches. What I like is that she's so specific about the love-related things she dislikes, and lines like "you'd die if your heart really skipped a beat" or "we were drunk when we met, so we don't know our anniversary" are witty, charming, and overall funny. Despite these cliches though, she loves her significant other because of other elements beyond those cliches, and while this song could have afforded to go more in depth about why she DOES love him (it's the Eric Paslay "Song About A Girl" syndrome, only here the chorus really underwhelms), this is solid nonetheless.
I won't say that Ballerini is really exuding as much personality on this track as she usually does (the jokes can fly right by you if you're not careful), but she's able to keep a steady flow regardless.
Overall, this is a solid offering from Kelsea Ballerini that's very witty and tasteful.
Grade: B
Listen: "I Hate Love Songs"
Author: Zackary Kephart
If anything, it might even just prove that albums are never just collections of singles no matter how hard they try. While "I Hate Love Songs" is literally sandwiched in between love songs on Unapolgetically, on its own it's better than I gave it credit for.
I'm not a huge fan of the waltz craze in Country music right now, mostly because most of the songs adopting it are schmaltzy or bad for some other reason. With this song, the waltz beat has a very relaxing, retro atmosphere to it, creating something that excellently matches the lyrical content.
Speaking of lyrical content, this song is clever and humorous in the way that it debunks romantic cliches. What I like is that she's so specific about the love-related things she dislikes, and lines like "you'd die if your heart really skipped a beat" or "we were drunk when we met, so we don't know our anniversary" are witty, charming, and overall funny. Despite these cliches though, she loves her significant other because of other elements beyond those cliches, and while this song could have afforded to go more in depth about why she DOES love him (it's the Eric Paslay "Song About A Girl" syndrome, only here the chorus really underwhelms), this is solid nonetheless.
I won't say that Ballerini is really exuding as much personality on this track as she usually does (the jokes can fly right by you if you're not careful), but she's able to keep a steady flow regardless.
Overall, this is a solid offering from Kelsea Ballerini that's very witty and tasteful.
Grade: B
Listen: "I Hate Love Songs"
Author: Zackary Kephart
