Top Twenty (Billboard Country)

Better Life--Keith Urban
I dont get Urban, i think hes boring, and doesnt have a fantastic voice, and everything out his mouth that isnt a cliche is absurd. This one has the old lover lost, summer fling dead in the fall vibe with out self aware irony, nosatligc sentiment or any real emotion...

Red Neck Yacht Club
Going higher and higher, still seems a half assed rip off from old Alan Jackson

Somebody's Hero--Jamie O'Neal
Mawkish. Politically Suspect. About the Glory of motherhead. Of course, it moves me deep inside, sometimes to tears.

Something to Be Proud of--Montgomrery Church.
The reason why Chuck Eddy thinks these motherfuckers are fascist is that almost every single they release has the triple pillars of kinder, kirche, kuche--often attacked, and often combined with flagwaving and other patrotism. This is really not much different. (There is a strange verse about trading his GTO for a foriegn cars, and being stuck in a deadend town "north of LA) In fact I think this is the only track I have heard of them that suggests that ambiguity and shame may be some of the results of the American Dream--its an (unintended?) implied subtext that is submerged in talk of flags flying and new born babys crying, but it isnt a hack job like Bumper of my SUV.

Brass Bed--Josh Gracin
I love this song, on the short list of my nashville list. the subtle, sad, steel guitars, the platinve voice, a man being weak, (there is no use in hiding how I feel right now...Girl you are wearing me out) seeking help, his subtly accented voice, its erotic of course--but also despearte in his desires. It also mentions how wonderful it is to cuddle in the middle of winter, and that of course, one would fall apart if the fortress was breached.

Proably Wouldnt Be This Way--Lee Anne Rhimes
Great words, great production, but i still think (no matter how old she seems) the song needs to be sung be someone in her mid50s, the theme of lost youth sort of escapes w/o power when the singer is in the middle of her golden years.

Who'd ya be Today--Kenny Chesney
Hurtin' songs seem to dominate, and this one should bother me as much as Urban--but I believe Chesney, and the line: "I wear my sadness like a heavy coat" I think hes acting here, the song is too early for RZ and it has a pallor of death about it in places, plus his work isnt really autobiographical, he is v. controlling with his personal life--but i do find myself moved by this, but Chesney usually does pull the strings nessc. for that.

Skin(Sarabeth)--Rascall Flatts
Cant seem to find it.

Proably Wouldnt Be--Leanne Rhimes
Wonderfully written, with flannery o connor details, and a strong production, its a song about death, loss, and youth--and i still think she is too golden, vibrant and alive to sing it well, Tanya Tucker was about the same time when she sang Lay With Me in A field of Stone, a song with similar content, but Tucker has always been much darker then Rhimes is cabable of.

You're Like Coming Home
A cliched mess, with derritave sound, not really worth much.

Come a Little Closer--Deirks Bentley
Its louder then it should be, shinier. It is similar to the themes of Gracin, but Bentley is incapable of giving up himself, and believes that making love is the same as solving problems, that fucking fixes everything wrong in a realtionship--or at least the songwriter does, but this is deeply problematic (plus the line come a little closer, i feel like laying you down(letting go) places himself first--its a deeply selfish song, (and lets face it, too fucking cheesy to be beleived)

HickTown--Jason Aldean
The best thing about this isnt how hard it rocks (but it does), or how raw Aldeans voice is (but it is) or how much fun everyone is having (and its the most entertaining single of the year) or how ramped up the production is (thats Big and Richs doing) but how authentic the cultural singnifers seem to be (a small list: White Rain, Pall Malls, Bingo, Mudding, Buying Beer at Amaco)

Tequilla Makes Her Clothes Come off_Joe Nichols
Its the best ode to date rape, ever! (Thats not fair) The details are great, the song pivots on a dirty chorus, you never sure wether Nichols is excited or overly protective, but it almost doesnt matter. The only thing that really bothers me is the rampant product placement.

Good Ride Cowboy--Garth Brooks
Memorial Tribute to Chris LeDoux and really interesting for a few reasons
1) Second reference to chewing tobacco among the recent chart (Skoal Ring), that and the ny times qouting Bobby Bare about it...which needs to be forgiven, because of documentary details (not that there is anything that needs to be forgiven here)
2) The theme of the song is really about how cowboy music is different from country, or to put it a different way, how what is played ar rodeos is not the same as what is on the radio--the question of purity, or what is really country (ie the western swing here and what Brooks calls here: "the western underground") is often argued b/w the americana crowd and the radio crowd--and i mean Brooks can be nothing but a radio populist, but here he does hint at that difference, and I dont think it has been talked about before...
3) He has for a long time had a really heavy hand for extended metaphor--this time, its a few words, and subtle ones at that--but defiens the western ethos as one not of independence or bullying, but of tenacity "whe she starts to twist, hold on tight"
4) he says good ride cowboy--and reading Jane Dark;s blog, she points out that this sentiment needs to be uncoded by people who have spent time at rodeos:" though the loveliest part of this song is how the titular compliment stores its rodeo admiration not in the praise (you gotta say "good ride" to everybody, after all) but in the honorific. Not everyone gets to be a cowboy"
5) II'm glad that he is back.

Big Blue Note--Toby Keith
I realised what I dont like about it--i dont belive him. I dont believe that Toby Keith would let himself have his heart brokenb, and if he did, i am not sure that his response would be a shrinks office and a rosach test. It doesnt go with his personae. He also doesnt do cute well.

Best I Ever Had-Gary Allen
He undersings a bit, and it might grow on me, but he does seem to be the kind of person who weeps openly into his beer and begs for someone to take him home come closing time.

Billy's got his Beer Goggles On--Neil McCoy
Anthoer contuiuion of the theme of disordered drinking, which seems to be the theme of the week, talks about ten beers, eand drinking ot get over a realtionship, would work better with another singer, maccoy always struck as more conserative then his material.

She Left Herself Go--George Strait.
I like this one, because a divorice does not result in sadness, or anhillation of self, or anything else, but freedom and liberty--she let herself go not apart, but away, on a first date, as a single mother, the idea that marriage is not the core goal for some people, and the joy of being alone.

Like We never Loved at All Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
i think they are trying for a tammy/george thing but its weird--i find her voice grating, too high and too overpowering, and tim mcgraw has more passion with nelly then he does w. his wife.


Boondocks--Big Small Town
Havent gotten it.

USA Today--Alan Jackson
one of his weaker tracks.