After seeing the excellent "Withdrawals" under-perform early at radio, Columbia Records decided to pull the intense tune, after peaking at #52 on the Airplay chart and #47 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and replace with "Better in Boots", a song that recently impacted radio.
"Better in Boots" is a song about a hot woman looking better when she wears boots, and that nothing else has ever looked better in boots. That is literally it. There is nothing left to say. It's an unoriginal song that is well below Farr's proven talent level lyrically, while the production is grating, the melody's bland, and Farr appears to be on auto-pilot for the entire duration of the track.
Suffer in Peace was a very strong album that not only showcased Farr's talent as a performer, but also his willingness to grow as an artist. There were several other, accessible, unoffensive songs that could have come in and done extremely well in the current radio-climate, but also boasted a decent amount of substance. "Poor Boy" soars with its guitar hooks and vivid lyrics, "Criminal" isn't groundbreaking lyrically but showcases some interesting technical choices, and "I Don't Even Want This Beer" is a well-written breakup song with a big, catchy chorus. All would have been more substantial choices, and wouldn't cost Farr any momentum.
Tyler Farr has a lot of upside as an artist, and I commend the label's choice to pull "Withdrawals", as I'm personally sick of marathon chart runs and wish more labels would pull obviously struggling songs early. But if they're going to pull songs in favor of pandering, uninteresting records? No thanks.
Grade: D-
Listen: "Better in Boots"
By Markus Meyer
"Better in Boots" is a song about a hot woman looking better when she wears boots, and that nothing else has ever looked better in boots. That is literally it. There is nothing left to say. It's an unoriginal song that is well below Farr's proven talent level lyrically, while the production is grating, the melody's bland, and Farr appears to be on auto-pilot for the entire duration of the track.
Suffer in Peace was a very strong album that not only showcased Farr's talent as a performer, but also his willingness to grow as an artist. There were several other, accessible, unoffensive songs that could have come in and done extremely well in the current radio-climate, but also boasted a decent amount of substance. "Poor Boy" soars with its guitar hooks and vivid lyrics, "Criminal" isn't groundbreaking lyrically but showcases some interesting technical choices, and "I Don't Even Want This Beer" is a well-written breakup song with a big, catchy chorus. All would have been more substantial choices, and wouldn't cost Farr any momentum.
Tyler Farr has a lot of upside as an artist, and I commend the label's choice to pull "Withdrawals", as I'm personally sick of marathon chart runs and wish more labels would pull obviously struggling songs early. But if they're going to pull songs in favor of pandering, uninteresting records? No thanks.
Grade: D-
Listen: "Better in Boots"
By Markus Meyer
