The free iTunes single of the week is the quite solid debut single from Ashton Shepherd, “Taking Off This Pain.” For the next seven days, you can get it for free here.
It’s a great song, one that’s worth paying for. But you can’t argue with it’s price this week! Highly recommended.
After they desecrated “Revolution”, Rascal Flatts doesn’t have the right to complain about people covering their songs, though I imagine this quickly rising pop hit will not go over well with their die-hard fans:
There was a trend in the nineties of taking classic eighties pop ballads and turning them into dance hits, creating a novelty for listeners who remembered the original. It was done to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Time after Time” with popular results, even if the original charm of the songs were lost in the translation.
There’s something oddly appropriate about doing the same to a Rascal Flatts hit, since they land somewhere between Styx and Wham! on the eighties wimp-rock scale. That Cascada’s take on their hit shows a steely resolve that the mushy, dignity-free Gary LeVox couldn’t muster on the original? The icing on the cake, my friends!
Then again, at least Flatts didn’t attempt to disco up their own hit. Remember when Reba took a shot at club immortality?
While you’re wiping away the tears of laughter, try to process this: it actually went to #2 on the dance chart. Get out! Get out!
At least she didn’t try to jump on the Peace Train:
I suppose that the heart is properly placed here, with the older generation warning a young woman to appreciate each stage of her life as she’s experiencing it, rather than pining for what’s still to come. But by always speaking in the voice of the older generation - first mom, then dad, then and older woman fixing the water heater - it’s hard to get a handle on the woman herself here.
The end result is a feeling of condescension, perhaps even a little contempt, toward the character, and since the chorus is in the second person, that attitude is inadvertently directed at the listener as well.
Written by Ashley Gorley & Lee Thomas Miller
Grade: B-
Listen: You’re Gonna Miss This
I wasn’t aware that Randy Owen was planning on doing any solo recordings, especially since Alabama is still putting out new studio albums. That band’s long-standing association with St. Jude’s Children Hospital makes the subject of “Braid My Hair” less surprising than it normally would be: a young girl with cancer wishing to be strong again, so she can do things that other girls do, including braiding her hair.
Cancer doesn’t surface in nearly as many songs as you’d expect, given just how widespread the impact of the disease is. Owen, thankfully, sidesteps any cloying appeals to emotion with his delivery, which is sincere, not manipulative.
Written by Christopher Gray & Brent Wilson
Grade: B+
Listen: Braid My Hair
Even as an American Idol junkie, I found the sixth season completely underwhelming. Phil Stacey making it as far as he did was more of a reflection of the field’s weakness than anything distinctive or special on his part. Here, he’s matched with material as faceless as his delivery was on Idol, but to his credit, he puts more energy and feeling into his first shot in the studio than he ever did during his stint on the televised competition. It’s just not enough to overcome such a hopelessly generic song.
Written by Gary LeVox, Wendell Mobley & Jason Sellers
Grade: C
Listen: If You Didn’t Love Me
Who doesn’t enjoy a calmly collected kiss-off number? Sure, it doesn’t have the emotional intensity of a tortured Dwight Yoakam record, but there’s something to be said for showing someone the door in a coldly detached way. There are a few too many lines I’ve heard too many times before, particularly the suggestion to lie in the bed you’ve made, and the song’s mood changes abruptly at the end, when the singer suddenly starts growling the title. But overall, this is pretty good.
Written by David Haywood, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott
Grade: B
Listen: Love Don’t Live Here
Buy: Love Don’t Live Here
Is it just me, or is this very, very loud? I had to turn the volume down to give it a fair listen. I may already be too old (or too mild-mannered) to be the target audience for this, but I can respect it from a distance. Heck, I actually like it.
Carroll continues to demonstrate versatility as a vocalist, this time getting high mileage out of his lower register. For all of the shout-outs that today’s new male artists give the Outlaw generation, Carroll’s the only one who sounds like he could actually keep up with them.
Written by Jason Michael Carroll, Jim Collins & Rivers Rutherford
Grade: B+
Listen: I Can Sleep When I’m Dead
I would’ve like a bit more edge to this, to bring more of the defiance in the lyric to the surface. That said, Nichols does well enough delivering this country boy’s slacker anthem. More people do mind to own their business, so it’s easy to sympathize with him here.
Written by Tony Martin, Mark Nesler & Tom Shapiro
Grade: B+
Listen: It Ain’t No Crime
Buy: It Ain’t No Crime