The Singles Jukebox

Checking in on Canadian country…

[Video]
[4.50]

Alfred Soto: Didn’t Justin Moore release something similar? Didn’t somebody? Anybody?
[5]

Steacy Easton: This could have come out anytime in the last ten years, by any number of equally competent singers, and in fact it seems awfully close to Justin Moore’s “Lettin’ the Night Roll.” After last year, post-Lil Nas X, post-Ingrid Andress, it’s just odd to absorb something this retrograde. I’m sure it will do well. 
[2]

Michael Hong: Tyler Joe Miller lays the drawl on thick, paints with only enough detail to let you know that yes, he’s singing about a woman, and makes the most mundane things sound wholly pathetic. Her ghost still casts a shadow, but it’s not large enough to hide the image of a man turning to his vices and withering away.
[3]

Katherine St Asaph: Thoroughly unsurprising but perfectly pleasant country, with a keening arrangement and echoes of Dido’s “Here With Me,” a dash (however accidental; this came out last December) of quarantine resonance and a minimum of condescension or bro. Extra point because in Googling the lyrics I was instead shown this, which really puts things in perspective.
[6]

Tim de Reuse: Credit where credit is due: the use of “pillow talking” to refer to a loud absence after a breakup is genuinely clever, and the not-rhyme of “haunted” against “talkin'” is pretty cute. That’s about all this track has going for it, but since it’s so chorus-heavy, the filler at least doesn’t have to do much filling. I’d normally waste a bunch of keystrokes talking about how awful the snare drum is, but at this point I’m resigned to the fact that chart-topping country music is just going to sound like this forever.
[6]

Alex Clifton: A bit too cliche to be a paradise, but a sight better than a war zone.
[5]