The Singles Jukebox

We’re going to need a drink for this one…

[Video]
[3.75]

Rebecca A. Gowns: Tequila is the drink my uncles drink. When I drink Tequila, I think of my dad calling me at 10pm, telling me to come over to his house because he and his brothers are grilling some meat on a warm summer night. I’d get there and there they would be, a bunch of middle-aged Latino dudes plowing through a bottle of mezcal, snacking on chips and carne asada, faces dimly lit by candlelight. Or I have flashbacks of my wedding, where my family demolished boxes of Costco tequila with shots punctuated by cheers of “salud.” This song is the complete opposite of my personal experience, an ode to a shared drink for a young white hetero American couple… and yet, if I let the word itself fade into the rest of the lyrics, I’m struck by how evocative this song is. The whole story unfolds before my eyes, clear as day with its specificity; I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time I see a bottle of reposado, I picture that blonde girl dancing across a Colorado cabin barefoot in her Kappa Alpha Theta shirt.
[7]

Crystal Leww: Dan + Shay’s first two albums are probably some of my favorite entries into the ~sensitive bro country~ landscape, but “Tequila” is limp, making a song about a fun drink, a fun girl, and fun times sound like an absolute drag. 
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: These guys sure are whiny; I’d leave ’em, too.
[2]

Katherine St Asaph: “I Want It That Way” for aging frat boys who secretly brood to the Chainsmokers.
[1]

Alfred Soto: Forget the strings and pace — what’s a boy band song like “Tequila” doing on the country chart? Or let me grant the strings and pace: what’s a Savage Garden ballad doing on the country chart? Sweet and dumb, despite the half-rhymes, “Tequila” pours on the pathos.
[5]

Jonathan Bradley: I’ve never tasted tequila as insubstantial as this. If the song had been called “water,” I’d fear it were overselling itself.
[3]

Jonathan Bogart: Drinking-to-forget-you songs given the dramatic but toothless production of praise-and-worship songs aren’t necessarily a new phenomenon, but it still takes me aback every time.
[4]

Katie Gill: Even in a “girl I miss you” song, we’ve got to have some awful macho country bragging. I suspect the “I can kiss somebody brand new” line is supposed to sound like either of the boys trying to convince themselves that they don’t miss this girl, but it’s eyerollingly bad. We’ve already filled our quotient of stupid and/or sad tequila country songs, so Dan + Shay would have to do something to make this song stand out from the crowd. They don’t. Instead, we get something almost aggressively generic and intensely boring.
[4]