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Archives: The Worst Country Singles of 2011
ORIGINALLY POSTED DEC 27, 2011
Worst Country Singles of 2011
Click the songs titles to listen, if you dare.
10. Tyler Farr - That's What They're Bitin' On
This is what happens when ball cap sporting posers like Jason Aldean and Brantley Gilbert rule the roost in Nashville. Copycats. Sure, Tyler may have been around just as long as those two, but he didn't get a push till now, so it's all about record execs seeing dollar signs. When the first line mentions a "turned around camouflage trucker ball cap," you know what to expect from there. Tricked out tractors, Stetson cologne, fishing metaphors, city-girls-gone-country… it's all there. Oh, loud guitars too, but that's a given… it is a country song after all.
9. Justin Moore - Bait a Hook
I thought Justin had turned a corner when he introduced his new album with the solid "If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away," but the rest of the album proved to be an entire collection of laundry list "how damn country I am" songs. And this one… I can't believe it hasn't come under critical fire for it's unspoken implication that a girly-drink-swilling, sushi-eating, Prius-driving boyfriend is more likely a closeted homosexual than a man deserving of the gal's love. If every man who can't skin a buck was unworthy of a female's partnership, I'd be out of a marriage y'all. And who the hell doesn't know who Jack Daniels is? The sissy boy this song is aimed at, that's who.
8. Trace Adkins - Brown Chicken Brown Cow
This porn joke turned country song turned puppet porn video served to cement Trace Adkins as the most scattershot artist working the top 40 these days. Trace has put out several songs in the past decade I'd name as my favorite commercial country tunes of the era. He's also put out at least 6 that are so indescribably bad, it's hard to see how they didn't top the country charts. It's not the hay loft love-making that makes this so bad - it's the terrible pun hook and the perverted farm animals who fight each other to get the closest view of the corn shucking. Even Trace knew this song was terrible, he pulled it from release to be spared the shame of the song not even cracking (huh huh, I said cracking) the top 30.
7. Big & Rich - Fake I.D.
Admittedly, I didn't hate Big & Rich's first album. It's over-the-top dumb fun and attempts to be nothing more. Since then, B&R have obviously struggled to recapture that juvenile attitude and hormone-filled energy to no avail. "Fake ID" proves their most awkward attempt at reconnecting with their youth. Think Travis Tritt flaming out with that awful "Girls Gone Wild" song a few years ago, or Clint Black uncomfortably parading around on the beach in a sleeveless T-shirt and jorts on the "Summer's Comin'" video. Kenny Chesney is the only older artist who can get away with that crap. This song has no weight whatsoever, no good hook, no interesting story, no soul. It's just a foolhardy attempt to get back on the radio with a lowest common denominator-aimed song that's more contrived than it is fun. Who wants to hear a thirty-something and a forty-something singing about trying to score fake ID's? It just doesn't make sense.
6. Tim McGraw & Gwyneth Paltrow - Me and Tennessee
The most annoying track on this countdown - "together we're singing/forever we're singing" goes the cringe-inducing chorus. Gwyneth isn't terrible, but her voice would be more suited to Colbie Calliat style singer-songwriter pop, rather than country. Ack, there's that chorus again - followed by some "yeah yeah yeah's" like they didn't know what else to fill the awkward space with. Awful. Damn near unlistenable. Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
5. Sawyer Brown - Smokin' Hot Wife
Sawyer Brown has now channeled the cheesy energy they once used to select their wardrobes into their music. The Bellamy Brothers-meets-Jimmy Buffett breezy island tune only tries to mine the popularity of similar Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown songs from recent years, but it adds nothing to the dopey lyrics. I suppose it might be okay for a 20-40 something artist to have a song by this title, but when it's from the 53 year old Mark Miller, it's just kinda creepy.
4. Colt Ford - Country Thang
From my review earlier this year:
"Country Thang" is YET ANOTHER listing song about, well, country thangs. And among thangs that Ford would like you to know are fixtures for the rural set are misspelelingllings (see song title) and uncorrect grammar, because "that's how we does it" down here! We also does it barefoot and crazy while the tin roof sings. We live in the pines in a shotgun shack with a high-priced huntin' dog baying around back. I bet you'll never guess what our women-folk wear. Yep, cutoff jeans. Apparently, in some necks of the south, women's clothing stores sell ONLY cutoffs, tight jeans, bikinis and short skirts. I wish.
Hey Colt, you sure you weren't better at golf?
3. Robin Meade - Dirty Laundry
The hottie-news anchor releases her first country single (because the world needed another star gone country) and it knowingly references her day job. Unfortunately that's the only thing remotely interesting about this cover of Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry." The soulless Muzik Mafia-lite background music sounds like something she bought from a show choir karaoke website. Her vocals are tolerable, but nothing that should have made her think she could make it in a world of Carrie Underwoods and Miranda Lamberts. The chorus is grating as hell. I'm not surprised this didn't even make a ripple, even in the age of lowered-standards Nashville. Putrid.
2. Luke Bryan - Country Girl (Shake it For Me)
I was starting to come around to Luke Bryan. He's clearly got some vocal talent. Some of his songs are pretty darn country-sounding. His cheesy-charm even got me to tolerate the dopey "Rain is a Good Thing."
Whatever good will Luke had built up with me was completely spent (and he went into debt) with "Country Girl (Shake it for Me)." This despicably dunderheaded dance-country crapfest exhorted his girl to shake her posterior for the catfish, squirrels, rednecks, flowers, trees, CMT execs… whoever. It rehashes every Nashville cliché we hated the first fifteen times. CowboyLyrics.com claims this to be one of the song's lyrics: "with a gattle in her Bud to get a little wild." I'm pretty sure that's not right, but even a nonsense lyrics like that couldn't pull the IQ of this song any lower.
1. Kristen Chenoweth - I Want Somebody (Bitch About)
From my review earlier this year:
From the first word out of her mouth, you know the next three minutes won't better your life experience. By midway through the first verse (if you're still around), you're convinced you can write a better song with the local Montgomery Gentry cover band. By the chorus, you're feeling a growing sense that your organs are banding together to overthrow your mind for letting things go this far. By the end of the chorus, you're ready to jump into a Slayer mosh pit and leave the whole adrenaline and whiskey charged bunch lying in a pool of their own blood and broken limbs. If you make it to the end, you hate your ears. Or you're a blogger.
This one takes the cake as the worst country single of 2011. And it's not even close.
Dishonorable Mentions: Toby Keith - Red Solo Cup; Brantley Gilbert - Country Must Be Country Wide; Jason Aldean - Dirt Road Anthem.
Jan 31, 2020
Worst Country Songs of the 90s
By Bobby Peacock a.k.a. TenPoundHammer
With its cheesy "dog" metaphors beaten into
oblivion (including "throw me a bone" twice) and its off-key shouted
vocals, this one is just painful to listen to. Orville Reddenbacher has made product
less corny than this. (Fun fact: One of the writers of this song has no other
entries on BMI.)
"Black Velvet" by Robin Lee
I actually liked this song until I heard the original by
Alannah Myles. Then I realized that Robin Lee's version is just a cheap karaoke
knockoff with none of Myles' smoldering passion. Why didn't Atlantic Records
just release Myles' version to country radio instead of this version that's
watered down to the point of losing all its flavor?
"Breathe" by Faith Hill
Overwrought, overplayed pop sludge without any flavor,
country or pop. I was never the biggest Faith Hill fan, but this is the point
where she pretty much lost me for good. Literally the only good thing to come
of this was my favorite Cledus T. Judd parody, the absolutely hilarious
"Breath."
"Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle
Another bombastic, strident CCM entry with an overly
saccharine set of father-daughter lyrics. What makes this even worse is that,
while Carlisle's version is utterly unlistenable, the Raybon brothers somehow
managed to salvage it by the strength of Marty Raybon's voice alone. Can you
believe this is the same guy who wrote "Why'd You Come in Here Lookin'
Like That?"
"Daddy's Little Girl" by Kippi Brannon
Not bombastic, not strident, not CCM, but still overly
saccharine father-daughter lyrics. This song has one of the most disjointed
meter and rhyme schemes imaginable. Even its timeline is off -- it jumps from
little girl to wedding, then back to teenager. At least Kippi had a good
voice, but she just never really managed to match it with anything worthwhile.
"Dancin', Shaggin' on the Boulevard" by
Alabama
Overly repetitive melody that goes nowhere. Verses that are
too damn long. Excessive name-dropping at the expense of a story. The whole
album proved that Alabama can't pull off any soulfulness whatsoever (okay,
"Sad Lookin' Moon" was good). If you want this song done right, just
listen to "Tar Top."
I took "American Boy" by Eddie Rabbitt off this list
because I felt it was sincere enough. This, on the other hand, is just a
clueless right-wing anthem shouting at Saddam without knowing what he's talking
about ("take your poison gas, stick it in your sassafras"?!). I feel
that this laid the ground work for all the MURICA songs that came out after
9/11. It's basically the "Iraq and Roll" of the 1990s, except easier
to find.
"Don't Laugh at Me" by Mark Wills
One of the frontrunners in the late 90s-early noughties
"Chicken Soup for the Soul" movement. Saccharine and manipulative as
all get out, this song did nothing but infuriate me even then with how
over-the-top it was. And I was "a little boy with glasses / the one
they call the geek" at the time it was released.
"Easy as 1, 2, 3" by The Spurs
Never heard of this one, huh? Well, it got to Top 20 in
Canada. Literally the only place you can listen to it is the lead singer's
Soundcloud ( https://soundcloud.com/user-897794179 ). Cheap bar-band sound, clashy and off-key
lead vocals, dopey lyrics, and a husband-and-wife duo that nobody remembers. I
get why CanCon laws exist, but man did they turn up some stinkers now and then.
"Forever Love" by Reba McEntire
Reba tries to get her Celine Dion on and misses big time.
That's really all I can say, because every time I listen to this song, I forget
it again about 10 seconds later.
"Holes in the Floor of Heaven" by Steve
Wariner
Another song with a saccharine metaphor that's easy to,
forgive the pun, poke holes in. If there are holes in the floor of Heaven, does
that mean the angels will be constantly falling through the holes and
crash-landing back on Earth? Why do the writers of these kinds of songs never
think their metaphors through?
"How Do I Live" by LeAnn Rimes or Trisha
Yearwood
Just like any other Diane Warren song, this is just cliché
after cliché. How do I live, how do I breathe, I can't go on without you, blah
blah blah, I've heard this exact song 600 times before. Unlike "Butterfly
Kisses" above, I feel that neither singer is able to rescue the material
in any way and both versions just come across as flat and dull.
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Mark
Chesnutt
The one exception to the Diane Warren rule is "I Don't
Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith, because come on, it's freaking
Aerosmith. But giving a hard-rock song to a honky-tonker like Mark Chesnutt is
one of the most mismatched cover songs this side of the Oak Ridge Boys doing
"Seven Nation Army." Chesnutt sounds uncomfortable and heavily Auto-Tuned,
and just plain doesn't work. And to his credit, he admits this was a mistake.
My 2000s list has a lot of Martina-bashing, I know. This one
I hate for the opposite reasons: her twee, childish lisp (supposedly based off
how the demo singer sang it) is unbearably cutesy, and actually makes me wish
this song had been a belt-fest for a change. Also, if your hook is just
"baby, I love you", you might wanna try just a little harder.
"I Will Stand by You" by Corbin/Hanner
Corbin/Hanner's "Work Song" is one of my favorite
lost treasures of the 90s. But this is just a syrupy and uninspired pop love
ballad that sounds like a very, very poor-man's Bryan Adams. I guess I should
have expected some cheese from one of the guys who wrote "Lord, I Hope
This Day Is Good", but man was this ever a letdown after something so
enjoyable as "Work Song."
"It's Your Love" by Tim McGraw featuring
Faith Hill
Yet another cheesy, boring, cliché love ballad the likes of which
propagated in this era. As the song that celebrated their marriage, I never
understood why it was just a backing vocal and not a full-fledged duet. That at
least might have given it some dynamic, but instead it just feels dull, with no
spark whatsoever in the lyrics or performance.
"Kiss the Girl" by Little Texas
I like The Little Mermaid. I like the songs from The
Little Mermaid. I even like Little Texas. But doing such a lifeless and
dull take on such a colorful and catchy song? No thanks. I suppose it could
have been worse: they could have tried to mimic Sebastian the crab's accent...
"Love Can Build a Bridge" by The Judds
That cheesy, overwrought metaphor (walk all the way across
the desert to give someone a crumb of bread) sets the bombastic and hyperbolic
overtones for the rest of the song. (Also, how do you "whisper love so
loudly"? After a certain volume level, it's not whispering anymore.)
Didn't we leave this kind of overly cheery feelgood cheese back in the 70s?
"Mama's Little Baby Loves Me" by Sawyer Brown
Sawyer Brown at their most insipid. Take the obvious mama's
little baby/daddy's little girl tropes and do nothing with them except
establish that mama's little baby loves you. (Also, danger/saving is not a
rhyme.) I gotta give credit where credit is due: I thank god that Mac McAnally
discovered these guys and salvaged them.
Damn it, Bob Carlisle, I didn't want you to be on here twice.
But yeah, he came up with this doofy joke of a song full of good ol' boy tropes.
Daddy works the farm, Mama works the Dairy Queen, the narrator wears a Stetson
and kissed Mary Lou Macadoo behind the barn. Oh, and let's not forget that
pitiful hook, "I'm a redneck son of a redneck son." Just another one
of the dregs of the "hat act" era.
"Romeo" by Dolly Parton and Friends
Not one, but four women slobbering hornily over Billy Ray
Cyrus. How did Kathy Mattea, Pam Tillis, and Mary Chapin Carpenter -- three
women who rarely if ever went for the cheese factor -- get roped into this? It's
actually quite hilarious in how God-awful it is.
"Somebody Slap Me" by John Anderson
A runner-up to Miss Oklahoma who likes chili and does her own
plumbing, huh? Could you get any more cartoonishly corny? This was the last
single written by the legendary Bob McDill, and the last top-40 hit for John
Anderson to date. What a way for both to go out.
Ray Stevens is one of my childhood favorites. But this is
just flat-out offensive: it uses the Oriental riff, women singing "ah
so", and the "Japanese mix up L's and R's" pronunciation to
drive home an over-the-top message about the influx of Japanese content in the
US in the early 90s. It all seems too straightforward to be satirical, and
judging from his political material in the 21st century, I fear there may
actually be a racist old man under the comedic exterior.
Jan 30, 2020
Really Dumb Country Reviews: January '20
Real reviews from a popular music service.
----------
Kane Brown - Experiment
Tanya Tucker - While I'm Livin'
Chase Rice - The Album Pt. 1
Tenille Arts - Love, Heartbreak...
Tyler Childers - Country Squire
Walker Hayes - 8 Tracks III
The Highwomen - s/t
Dustin Lynch - Tullahoma
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