The Singles Jukebox

What did everyone get up to on the weekend?

[Video]
[6.71]

Jessica Doyle: “Well, I ain’t Cinderella but who is/Call me what you want, if the shoe fits/I ain’t gonna say I never do this, ’cause truth is/ Lonely make a heart ruthless.” Damn if that doesn’t resonate, and McBryde does it one better by coming down on every line but the last, when she picks up her voice in defiance: this is where the narrator is, there’s no getting around or ameliorating it, there’s no apology for feeling it. The conviction of the grim self-loathing in this is what “Dancing with a Stranger” was supposedly shooting for, and chickened out of (except for Normani). The conviction is what a lot of songwriters and performers chicken out of.
[8]

Kayla Beardslee: McBryde has a pleasant voice (both literally and lyrically), one that carries a mix of conviction and wit. Her country twang sounds perfectly suited to this, not tacked on but still noticeable enough to add some extra color to the lyrics. The melodies and rhymes are playful, constantly rising, falling, and changing: see the variation in the quick “goes is/closes/roses” rhymes, and how they’re followed by the drawn out, unrhyming “just a room/without a view.” The male harmonies are a smart production choice — they make the track into a subtle duet, suggesting that McBryde and the guy are on the same page as they walk into the bedroom. And that unexpected guitar solo is just a simple joy.
[7]

Thomas Inskeep: This song is so well-written it almost makes me ache, and McBryde delivers the mid-tempo country groove just the way it needs to be delivered. “Just use me/Like I’m usin’ you”: ugh, this is brutally excellent.
[8]

Alfred Soto: I underrated Girl Going Nowhere, now one of 2018’s recurrents in my collection, and “One Night Standards” has proven equally resilient: title conceit I hadn’t heard before, confident vocal (“Ain’t nobody gonna hurt nobody”), and an arrangement on the rocking side of so-called Americana. 
[8]

Julian Axelrod: I’ll always appreciate a desperate hookup ballad, and I admire McBryde’s willingness to get aggressively unsentimental. I wish the title line hit a bit harder, but that deflation fits the song around it: Sometimes you’re hoping for a big release that never comes.
[6]

Michael Hong: Ashley McBryde’s vocal exasperation anchors the vividly detailed “One Night Standards,” which is complemented by its production, building an atmosphere that’s quietly apathetic, smothering moments of brightness as they appear. McBryde flips a one night stand into something more transactional for a strong hook, padded by the standard pounding drum and acoustic guitar. The opening electric guitar is quickly drowned out by that acoustic guitar but pops up for several moments brightening the track. The electric guitar builds until it reaches the bridge, but the guitar solo plays out almost half-heartedly and McBryde returns, keeping her cold detachment and smothering her feelings and anything else that may suggest some warmth.
[7]

Katherine St Asaph: Critics will overrate any song where a woman acknowledges pursuing sex. The title “One Night Standards” suggests a country “New Rules,” but the meaning’s more small-c conservative: “standards” in the songbook sense, the hookup equivalent of telling the DJ to just stick to “Brown-Eyed Girl” and “Sweet Caroline.” The music, in turn, has zero surprises: soft-focus verses, chorus with the melodic contours of “Accidental Racist,” blustery guitar solo doing exactly what it always does. And for supposedly bracing songwriting, so many details are off. The point of Cinderella is that she’s gone after midnight; lines are consistently swallowed and mis-stressed in a way that blunts the impact of lyrics like “you ain’t gotta lie to me,” which should land on “lie” and not “TO me.” More broadly, the writers can’t decide whether the song should be unapologetic or pained, so McBryde sings it both ways arbitrarily. But the writers do make one consistent decision: not to make it horny, not at any point to suggest actual desire. That’s one standard I wish they hadn’t stuck to.
[3]