Country
Billboard Chart News March 28, 2016
In
Brief: Billboard Country Charts (Chart issue week of April 9, 2016)
Country Album
Chart ** No.1 (4 non-consecutive weeks) HYMNS Joey + Rory
Hot Country
Songs ** No.1 (3 weeks) ** “You Should Be
Here” Cole Swindell
Country Airplay
** No.1 (1 week) ** “You Should Be Here” Cole Swindell
Country Digital
Songs ** No.1 (1 week) ** “Humble and Kind” Tim McGraw
The
Billboard 200 chart measures multi-metric album consumption, which includes
traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent
albums (SEA).
Gwen Stefani made a debut at No.1 on the
Billboard Top 200 Album Chart (BB200)
with THIS IS WHAT THE TRUTH FEELS LIKE,
which earned her first chart-topper as a solo artist. The album, her third
release, earned 84,000 equivalent album units
in
the week ending March 24, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum it sold 76,000 in pure album sales.
This Is What the Truth Feels
Like was
released on March 18 through Interscope Records and is Stefani’s first solo
album since 2006’s THE SWEET ESCAPE, which debuted and peaked at No. 3 (243,000
sold in its first week). Prior to that, she reached No. 5 in 2005 with LOVE.
ANGEL. MUSIC. BABY., which was released in 2004 (bowing with 309,000 sold in
its first week).
Rihanna’s ANTI slipped from No. 1 to
No. 3 with 52,000 units (down 3%), Adele
with 25 moves 2-4 (51,000 units; up less than %), Justin Bieber’s PURPOSE dipped 3-5 (47,000 units; down 3 percent),
Chris
Country
Chris Stapleton with TRAVELLER rose 7-6 (33,000
units; down 4%)
22-year
old Georgia country singer Kane Brown made a debut
at No.9 with his new Chapter I (EP),
his first release through Zone 4/RCA Nashville. It launched with 28,000 units (21,941 copies sold).
Brown previously reached No. 40 with his self-released CLOSER EP, crowd-funded
by Kickstarter, which has sold 38,300 copies since its release last June 2,
2015.
Joey + Rory with HYMNS rounded out the new Billboard 200’s top 10, as it descended
4-10 with 27,000 units (down 38%).
Billboard Top Country
Albums (Chart issue week of April 9, 2016)
Joey
+ Rory with HYMNS (Farmhouse/Gaither/Capitol CMG) led Billboard Top
Country Albums (based on pure sales) for a fourth frame (and third in
succession) selling another 27,216 (down 38%). The inspirational set
reigns over Top Christian Albums for a sixth week. It was the 5th biggest
selling album on the all genres Top Albums. In six weeks it has sold 238,000
copies.
Chris Stapleton with TRAVELLER held at #2 Country
selling 26, 064 copies (47-week total 1,075,900)
In his second week Randy Houser with FIRED UP (Stoney Creek/Broken Bow Music
Group), (#30) sold 7,282 copies down 75% on the debut week (#30 Top albums) and
fell 15-62 on the Billboard 200 and 3-6 Country.
Breakout
country music recording artist Kane Brown with his 5 track EP CHAPTER 1 blew in at #9 on
the BB200, #3 on Digital Albums, #7 Top albums and a #3 Billboard Top Country selling 21,941 copies.
In addition to co-writing “Used To Love You Sober”, Brown co-penned three
more tracks on Chapter 1 including “There Goes My Everything” which rapidly
rose to No. 8 on the Billboard Digital Country Songs Chart, selling over 22,000
downloads this week.
The
5-track collection includes Brown’s debut radio single and viral fan favorite
“Used To Love You Sober” which boasts over 200,000 downloads and 2.2 million
streams to date.
“I’m so
excited to release Chapter 1 – my fans have been so patient and supportive as
I’ve worked on this project!” shared Brown. “From the writer’s room to the studio to playing these songs night after
night on tour, it’s been an incredible experience. I’m grateful to my fans and
can’t wait for what’s to come in the future but right now let’s start with
Chapter 1!”
Named an
“Artist To Watch” by Billboard, Huffington Post and HITS, Brown continues
blazing cross-country on his first headlining tour notching 35+ sold-out dates
– many markets selling out in less than 24 hours. In May, Brown teams up with
Florida Georgia Line, Cole Swindell and The Cadillac Three for the 56-date 2016
Dig Your Roots Tour.
Brown heads to Las Vegas this weekend for his first ACM Awards, joining
in the festivities with a headlining show at The Double Barrel at The Monte
Carlo on Friday, April 1st.
Critical
reception for Kane Brown’s Chapter 1:
Sounds
Like Nashville …..Brown has described his music as Chris Young's
voice on a Sam Hunt track and it isn’t a far off stretch. Songs like “Last
Minute Late Night” are easy to envision being sung by Young while the
fast-paced slick beats are reminiscent to something Hunt would cut.....While
some songs on Chapter 1 leave a greater mark than others, Brown’s EP
encompasses five tracks that are enough to satiate his fans’ wait for the
full-length album.
Bobby Bones
& The Raging Idiots with his project THE CRITICS GIVE
IT 5 STARS (Black River Entertainment) arrived at #41 BB200 (#4 Country) selling 11,486 copies
This new album’s comically manipulative title was no accident. “This is my only chance to make people say something,” Bones explained to Billboard. “I thought, well, maybe nobody will actually give us five stars, but people will have to say that’s the name of the record, and some people might get confused and think the critics are giving it five stars and it’s excellent, so they’ll just stumble into buying it. Let’s hope people accidentally mistake the album title for a real review.”
The project is packed with collaborations with A-list country stars
including Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley
and Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley.
Garth Brooks provides un-credited
background vocals on one track, although he is thanked in the set’s liner
notes.
Sounds Like Nashville - ….Bobby Bones and the Raging Idiots manage to impress on the 13-track
release. For those in need of a mid-day pick-me-up the album more than succeeds
with a few good laughs. Though the serious types may skip a few tracks, after
giving a listen to “Fishin’ With My Dad,” Bones’ ability as a songwriter is
undeniable.
The Dave Cobb produced project Various Artists SOUTHERN FAMILY (Import) made a bow at #37 on the BB200, #18 Top albums and #5 Billboard Top Country selling 10,897 copies.
In Southern Family, you hear the results of each artist's individual recipe, but they're all cooking with a similar ingredient: the heritage of musician’s relief from the bone-aching labor of hard-working people.
Bringing big names like Miranda
Lambert, Zac Brown and Chris
Stapleton together with acclaimed artists like Jason Isbell, Anderson East
and Brandy Clark, the project is
full of custom-written songs about growing up in the South, all delivered in
the rootsy, back-to-basics sound Dave used as producer of Chris’ CMA award- and
Grammy award-winning album, Traveller.
Critical
reception for Various Artists “Southern Family”:
Allmusic (Rating: 4.5 STARS) More than a concept album, Dave Cobb's 2016
compilation Southern Family is a clarion call: the definition of a new south
for a new millennium. This new south -- one with a reverence for the past, as
defined by old tunes and handed-down traditions, but one unbeholden to
conventions -- has been essayed by Cobb on his productions for Jamey Johnson,
Chris Stapleton, and Sturgill Simpson, records that refurbish outlaw country
for a new century. ... Southern Family crawls into focus with John Paul White's
"Simple Song" and Jason Isbell's "God Is a Working Man,"
tunes that function as keynotes for the album.... Certain themes are cycled
through -- usually family, loss, and love, sometimes arriving in a tangled ball
-- but what resonates on Southern Family is how each singer/songwriter is
faithful to their own voice within the grander tapestry Cobb has devised. It's
a trick that telegraphs just how rich and complex this modern Southern Family
actually is.
NPR (Rating: Positive) …Southern Family collects such moments in a
bouquet of memories and treasured sentiments, in the process coalescing into
one of the subtlest concept albums to ever bear that dangerously pretentious
descriptor. Inspired by the 1979 album White Mansions, a song cycle about the
Civil War spearheaded by the writer Paul Kennerly and produced by Glyn Johns,
Cobb's own effort doesn't adhere to a linear narrative the way its predecessor
does. It's more like the way we tell tales now, in dialogue across social
media, our individual experiences adding up to a collective portrait of our
times.....Southern Family also reflects the eclecticism of the music that's
long emanated from Nashville and its environs. Clark's track, enhanced by pedal
steel and Mellotron, is high countrypolitan class; East's has the Muscle Shoals
swagger he's made his trademark. Lambert invokes the Southern gospel her song
title recalls. Brent Cobb gets swampy in the comical "Down Home,"
while White finds the place where folk music meets The Beatles. Bluegrass and blues
and righteous Southern rock all find a place here. More than anything else,
Southern Family is an argument for tradition as an organic concept, not an
imposed one. Family is in the details, and to capture those details we have to listen
to each other and accept the joy, the pain and the differences.
Kentucky.com Entertainment (Rating: Mostly Positive)….Most of the artists rise to the theme of
Southern Family without overstating it. Isbell’s God is a Working Man speaks
crisply to his prideful roots, a blend of Southern storytelling and reverential
country. But the women largely set the pace of the album. Lambert noticeably
downshifts on Sweet By and By, adopting a quietly intense and vastly more
contained country tone that one seriously hopes will carry over into her future
work. Morgane Stapleton gets top billing over one of Cobb’s star clients,
husband Chris Stapleton, for a duet update of You Are My Sunshine that swaps
the song’s innocence for a darker, swampy electricity. Topping them all is the
brilliant Brandy Clark, whose I Cried is elegant, honest and un-coerced country
heartbreak……The only misfire goes to the Zac Brown Band, whose Grandma’s Garden
overdoses on its own sentimental forwardness the way that much of radio-tooled
country does. Frankly, Cobb’s atypically heavy-handed production doesn’t help.
Also, Anderson East’s Learning starts with a kind of Randall Brambett-style
soulfulness but reaches for Otis Redding-level intensity and winds up sounding
forced and falsely imitative.
Wade Bowen with THEN SINGS MY SOUL: SONGS FOR MY MOTHER (Alliance Import) made a
debut at No.91 top Albums and #18
Top Country Albums selling 3,275
copies
Americana/country music singer Wade Bowen (brother-in-law of Cross Canadian Ragweed front man, Cody Canada) wanted the album to be a gift for his mother, her friends and family, but with such great response and positive feedback, Bowen says he decided to release the album for his fans.
"I am at such a good spot in my career right now with a lot of
freedom, so this felt like the perfect time to release such a meaningful
project." The idea of the album came from Bowen's father. "My dad came to me a few years ago and really
wanted me to record a gospel album. It sounded like a fun idea but I didn't put
much thought into it because my schedule was so crazy busy. This past year he
came to me again and asked if I would finally make the album so we could give it
to my mother for a combination 70th birthday and Christmas present."
The album contains 12 tracks and feature new twists on standards
"Amazing Grace", "Old Rugged Cross", "I'll Fly
Away" and other songs. Bowen was a member of the band West 84 with friend
Matt Miller, before the band was re-aligned in 2001
Last year on April 20, 2015 Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers released a collaborative album called Hold My Beer,
Vol. 1 which made a #4 country debut selling 12,500 copies.
Outside
Top 25 Country Albums
William Michael
Morgan with his self-titled EP
(Warner Music Nashville) made a debut at No.28
Country selling 1,800 copies
The EP is WMN's introduction of William Michael to the world. Riding the
growing chart success of his debut single "I Met A Girl", the EP promises
to showcase "William's unique vocal skills, and serve as a great launching
pad to his debut LP later in 2016" according to the label. There are 6
songs on the EP, including the hit "I Met A Girl".
Critical
reception for William Michael Morgan’s EP:
Saving Country Music (Rating: 1 1/2 of 2 Guns Up
(6.5 of 10)…Along with Mo Pitney, William Michel Morgan is one of the best
hopes for a young traditionalist that could have an impact on the mainstream
side.
He’s got the voice, the style, and the
temperament........Morgan
surprised everyone by releasing a song partially penned by Sam Hunt as his
first single that sounded like it was straight out of the mid 80’s traditional
country resurgence. “I Met A Girl” was no Mona Lisa, but it showed a lot of
promise from the young singer. If Morgan could take a Sam Hunt song and make it
sound that good, what else could he do? Unfortunately, the first song on this
EP, “Vinyl,” sounds like it could be a dance club single converted to country.
...The second song on the EP “Beer Drinker” is not as bad as the title may make
it seem, but just like saying “girl” at the end of every phrase, leaning on the
term “beer” as a crutch is something we expect more from washed up Bro-Country
acts....The promise of William Michael Morgan remains, and his style is
undoubtedly country. But we will have to see how, and what direction the
songwriting develops in, and if Morgan will step up to make more songwriting
contributions, and see what other type of material is selected to work with his
sound before we get the big picture on what William Michael Morgan will be, and
what impact he might have on the effort to return some balance to the
mainstream country space.
He’s got the voice, the style, and the
(Rating: Positive) Mississippi native William Michael Morgan is
an up and coming country artist who has already made quite the impression on
the industry and critics alike with his debut single, “I Met A Girl”, which has
reached number 34 on the Country Airplay chart. The song was written and performed
by Sam Hunt, but Morgan made it his own and can lay claim to the best version.
The single is a sweet, slow building love song, made even better by Morgan’s
rich, pure country vocals. Morgan recently released his debut self-titled EP
earlier this month. The record is a breath of fresh traditional country air in
a scene that is currently clogged up with R&B and hip-hop influences....The
EP is incredibly easy on the ears, opening with the smooth, easy rolling
“Vinyl”. The song finds Morgan serenading his lady love, telling her that their
love is classic, like a vinyl record, and lasting...Overall, William Michael
Morgan’s debut EP is a strong one. The EP serves its purpose in making me
excited to hear a full album. If you’re looking for some great, traditional
sounding country music, this EP is the one for you… The most bang for your
dollar.
Various
Artists project
Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American
Music made a debut at #48 Country.
Blurb:
Country-rock became "the dominant American rock
style of the 1970s," as Peter Doggett's comprehensive Are You Ready for
the Country put it much later. Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music picks
up and dusts off golden ingots from the dollar-bin detritus of that domination,
to reconstruct events as seen from the genre's real Wild West - America's
one-off private press label substructure.
Billboard Hot Country Songs
(Chart issue week of April 9, 2016)
On Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart - which
blends:
a) All-format airplay, as monitored by BDS
b) Sales, as tracked by Nielsen SoundScan and
c) Streaming, (tracked by
Nielsen BDS from such services as Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and
Xbox Music, among others) according to BDS it results in:
Cole
Swindell’s “You Should Be
Here” (Warner Bros./Warner Music Nashville) led Hot Country Songs for a third
week.
“I Like the Sound of That” (Big Machine)
became Rascal
Flatts’ 30th Hot Country Songs top 10,
when it jumped 12-8 on the survey
(which measures airplay, sales and streaming). On Country Airplay, it pushed
4-3 (39.7 million, up 7%). Pop singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor co-wrote the
song with Jesse Frasure and Shay Mooney. (Having the band record it was
Trainor’s “biggest dream come true,” she told Billboard in 2014.)
Chris
Young and Cassadee Pope with
“Think of You” (RCA
Nashville/Republic Nashville) lifted 12-9,
fueled in part by its 9-8 lift on Country Airplay (29.4 million, up 19%). The
love song is Young’s 10th Hot Country Songs top 10
and Pope’s fourth.
Old
Dominion with “Snapback”
(RCA Nashville), its sophomore single, became its second Hot Country Songs top 10 (11-10), following its No.3 hit “Break Up with
Him.” “Snapback” advanced 8-7 on Country Airplay (30. 1 million, up 3%).
Hot County
Songs
** No.1 (3 weeks)
** “You Should Be Here” Cole Swindell
** Airplay
Gainer ** No.20 “Huntin', Fishin' & Lovin' Every Day” Luke Bryan
** Hot Shot
Debut ** No.27 “There Goes My Everything” Kane
Brown
** Digital
& Streaming Gainer ** No.29 “Used To Love You Sober” Kane Brown
Debut
No.33 “Noise” Kenny Chesney
Debut
No.34 “Wide Open” Kane Brown
Debut
No.47 “Peter Pan” Kelsea Ballerini
Billboard Country Airplay (Chart issue week of April 9, 2016)
Country
Airplay
***
No.1 (1 week) *** "You Should Be Here” Cole Swindell 43.842 million audience (+2.119 million) / 8,022 radio
plays (+594)
** Most
Increased Audience/ Hot Shot Debut/ Most Added ** No.21 “Noise” Kenny Chesney 13.095 million audience
gain with 102 new radio commitments (102 ADDS)
Debut
No.58 “Whisper” Chase Rice
Debut
No.60 “Fishin’ With My Dad” Bobby Bones
And The Raging Idiots
Cole
Swindell with “You Should Be Here” (Warner
Bros./Warner Music Nashville) ruled Country Airplay as it climbed 2-1
increasing by 5 percent to 43.8 million audience impressions, according to
Nielsen Music, and leads Hot Country Songs for a third week.
“Finding out that you have the No.1
song in the country while backstage at the Grand Ole Opry is the coolest
feeling in the world,” Swindell told Billboard of his reaction. “This
song is so special to me, and hearing fans’ stories and the way country radio
has embraced it is amazing. I’m a lucky guy, and I know my dad is smiling down
right now.”
“The brilliant part about this song is it speaks to so many different
people,” says WBWL Boston PD Lance Houston. “Cole wrote it about a specific [person], but listeners relate it to
their own circumstances. Plus, he wrote it in the parking lot at Gillette
Stadium, just outside of Boston, so that made it significant here.”
Warner Music Nashville vp promotion Kristen Williams believed the song
was a hit after one listen. “I actually
heard it as a demo on Cole’s phone,” she said. “I could tell immediately we had
something, which was validated when we played it for programmers at the Country
Radio Seminar and there were tears in the room.”
Dierks
Bentley scored his milestone 20th Country Airplay top 10, as “Somewhere on a Beach”
(Capitol Nashville) swelled 13-10 (25.7 million, up 10%). The song
previewed his LP Black.
Kenny
Chesney with new single “Noise” (Blue Chair/Columbia
Nashville) bounded onto the chart at No.21 with 13 million in first-week
audience. The track marked Chesney’s record-extending ninth top 25 debut; Garth
Brooks ranks second with five.
Press
Release Nashville, Tenn (March 28, 2016) - Having built a career on knowing the
moment and trusting his gut, Kenny Chesney derailed a pretty involved single
set-up when he suddenly found himself midway through writing a song about the
impact of sonic overload on our society. Begun on his way to a marketing
meeting to review set up plans for his new music, something about “Noise”
struck Chesney as too immediate to wait.
“Sometimes as a writer, you sense the urgency
of what you’re saying,” he says. “I knew how many hours of work had gone into
setting up the album and the single. I also felt in my gut ‘Noise’ was a song
people were hungry to hear someone say.”
Chesney’s lucky his gut didn’t knock him over.
Hitting Billboard’s Country Singles Chart at No. 21 bullet and MediaBase’s at
No. 28 bullet, “Noise” brought in a whopping 146 adds in its first week; even
more than the 111 stations “American Kids” had and the 127 stations Hemingway
Whiskey’s “Live A Little” scored.
“I’ve
always tried to make music that says something I think the fans want to hear,”
Chesney said. “When you have a great song
that speaks to the heart of how people are living, you’ve got something. I try
to not repeat myself, or what other folks are doing.
“We had a really smart, really interesting
single musically and topically,” continued the man The Los Angeles Times proclaimed “The People’s
Superstar.” “But when ‘Noise’ rolled out and Shane and I were almost done before
we got off the phone, I knew it was special, and real, and everything people
are contending with. This response tells me my instinct was right.”
Can't Stand The Noise?
You
can listen Kenny Chesney's "Noise" (Blue Chair Records/Columbia
Nashville) below
Describing
“Noise” as “socially relevant,” Kenny talked about how most of us are
overstimulated and bombarded by information, remarking on the current U.S.
Presidential race in particular. Moments after the video chat ended, “Noise”
arrived in the inboxes of radio stations everywhere. Watch the Facebook video here
Billboard Country Digital
Singles Chart (Chart issue week of April 9, 2016)
‘HUMBLE’ GUY: Tim McGraw with “Humble and Kind” (McGraw/Big
Machine/Big Machine Label Group) ascended 3-1 on Country Digital Songs
(35,000 sold, up 6% on previous week 32,890 sales). It’s his third No.1
on the survey, which launched in 2010. On the all genre Digital Songs chart it
moved 21-18 and has sold 253,000 copies in 10 weeks.
Maren
Morris with "My Church" (Columbia
Nashville/Sony Music Nashville) held at No.2 (#20-#25 Digital Songs; 31,000 sales; 11-week total 317,000).
Last
week’s #1 Blake
Shelton with “Came Here to Forget” (Warner Bros./
WMN) fell 1-3 (#15-#26 Digital Songs; 3-week total 136,000)
Dierks
Bentley with “Somewhere On A Beach" held at #4 (28,000 sales; 28-30 Digital Songs; 10-week total 216,000)
Cole
Swindell with “You Should Be Here” held at #5 (27,000 sales; #29-#33 Digital
Songs; 15-week total 430,000)
Thomas
Rhett with his new single “T-Shirt” climbed 9-6 (24,000 sales; #39-#35 Digital
Songs; 10-week total 144,000) whilst his big hit "Die A Happy Man"
fell 6-10 (24,231 sales; down 8%; 33-40 Digital Songs; 27-week total 1,281,000).
Chris
Young duet with Cassadee Pope was up 8-7 (22,000 sales; #37 Digital Songs; 10-week
total 188,000).
Brett
Eldredge with “Drunk On Your Love” fell 7-9 (22,000 sales; 34-39 Digital
Songs; 16-week total 311,000)
Country Aircheck MEDIABASE
Chart
28
March 2016
Congrats to Brett Eldredge, Kevin Herring, Kristen Williams, Katie Bright and the WMN promotion staff on landing week's No.1 with "Drunk On Your Love."
The
song logged 8,601 radio spins (+827)
and 58.624 million audience
impressions (+4.495) with 27403
Total Points from 159 tracking stations for the tracking week March 20 to March
26, 2016 and published chart March 28th 2016.
The
song is the second chart-topper from his current album Illinois and the fifth
consecutive No.1 of his career. It follows "Lose My Mind" in October
2015, "Mean to Me" in March 2015, "Beat Of The Music" from
June 2014 and "Dont Ya" August 2013
Kudos
to Steve Hodges and the Columbia team on ringing the bell with 138 adds for Kenny Chesney's "Noise," topping the week’s "Most Added" board. It made a debut
at No.28. It is the second-highest one-week add total in Country Aircheck
history behind the 145 for Carrie Underwood's "Smoke Break" set last
August. Chesney also surpassed Blake Shelton's second highest 131 one-week adds
with "Came Here To Forget"
Randy Houser’s
“Song Number 7” Rocks Country Radio Today, March 28
Second
single from new album, Fired Up, reels in Houser's highest first week add total
to date with 60 first week reporters as he prepares to hit the road for the
2016 Somewhere On A Beach Tour with Dierks Bentley
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (March 28, 2016) – Still fresh from landing his fourth No. 1 with “We
Went” and releasing his new album, Fired Up, Randy Houser shows no signs of
slowing down as his new single, “Song
Number 7,” arrived at country radio today, March 28. The catchy earworm is
the second most-added song at country radio with 60 first week reporters,
marking Houser's highest first week add total to date. Fans and critics have
also latched on to the new single, with the New York Times noting that “Song
Number 7” is “likely to be one of the best country songs of this year” and
Taste of Country calling it “the finest single representative of
[Houser’s]
Fired Up album. It’s a big country power ballad that leans progressive, but
stops short of crossing a bridge that leaves traditional country behind. Above
all else, ‘Song Number 7’ is a vocal showcase.”
Written
by Justin Wilson, Ben Hayslip and Chris Janson, “Song Number 7” is rooted in “a
familiar country conceit: music about the power of music” (New York Times),
which Houser has also nodded to in his own writing such as the deep cut “Power
Of A Song” from his previous record, How Country Feels.
Source
Press Release
What others are saying;
He'll slyly incorporate some
trends into his productions -- here, it's a bright, beat-heavy electronic
tapestry reminiscent of Luke Bryan -- but it's just enough to freshen a sound
that remains rooted in muscular, masculine modern country - Allmusic
There’s a song called “Song
Number 7” that works just like Luke Bryan’s “Play It Again,” only just not
nearly as effective. - Saving Country Music.com
Country Perspective.com - Houser is currently performing select headlining dates and
will join Dierks Bentley for the 2016 Somewhere On A Beach Tour starting in
May. Fired Up proved to be an album overloaded with stupid pop country songs
jutting up into 17 tracks! As a mid-tier country bro, Houser’s producers
clearly felt the need to give this album enough life to sustain Houser through
tours and radio singles for a couple of years. We aren’t going
to bother
reviewing the 17-track album as the ready for radio playlist has nothing to
offer as an album. However, as Houser releases singles, we’ll take a look at
each of those. And the second single Houser is releasing from Fired Up is “Song
Number 7.”
Is Nashville even trying anymore? We’re at a party with loud music and there’s one girl in particular who catches the eyes of the boys. As the party’s playlist continues, the girl gradually becomes more interested in the narrator. Once the seventh song comes through the speakers, she jumps and says “oh my god, this is my song! We’ve been listening to the radio all night long.” Wait, no. This isn’t “Play It Again.” But it might as well be. Randy Houser’s “Song Number 7” is a remake of Luke Bryan’s “Play It Again,” and writers Chris Janson, Ben Hayslip, and Justin Wilson somehow make the already terrible subject worse. Even the mid-tempo
production
with drum machines and generic guitars sound similar to “Play It Again,”
primarily in the chorus. There was little attempt to separate this clone from
the original.
Randy
Houser doesn’t sing with any kind of charisma, and the chorus features some
awkward, jarring vocal harmonies that strangely pop way after a natural echo
would. The production of this song is crap with random intensified drums. I
almost didn’t want to review “Song Number 7”, but it’s such a near copycat of Luke Bryan’s hit that
it deserves to be put on this platform.
Absolutely
no effort went in to making this song even a little original. Instead of
playing to Randy Houser’s strength as a vocalist and letting his traditional
country-style expand, his label has decided to prop him firmly in the shadows
of the A-List bros by having him record songs that continue mainstream country
down a path of cutting the same, boring song. “Song Number 7” is terrible due
to the fact that it has no originality whatsoever. Grade: 2/10
Billboard Boxscores (Selective Country
concerts)
Rank
#144
Artist:
Jennifer Nettles, Brandy Clark, Lindsay Ell, Tara Thompson
Event
Venue City/State: Ford Center Evansville, Ind
Dates:
March 19, 2016 Gross Sales: $35,503 Attend: 875 / 2,557
Capacity
Shows: 1/0 Prices: $66, $22
Promoters:
VenuWorks
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.