Monday, June 20th, 2011

Little Big Town – The Reason Why

So would their name be a contradiction, an oxymoron or just, you know, rubbish?



[Video][Website]
[4.73]

Chuck Eddy: As I recall, the disappointing 2010 album for which this served as the title cut didn’t see the LBTs delving into trusty mid/late ’70s Fleetwood Mac (sans Stevie’s voice or Lindsey’s guitar) territory more than a couple times, perhaps because they were tired of being pigeonholed. Not a fortunate decision as far as keeping the music non-boring is concerned, but this defloweration plea was apparently one of those “couple times.” Also neat how it starts out kinda like “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tommy James and the Shondells.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Imagine “Need You Now” as the climax of a marital symphony and this as the overture. The truth and clarity of the vocals and guitars adduce the kind of partnership you can’t buy. But if I lack the courtesy to attend this wedding ceremony, blame the boringness of bride and groom. Not only do I find the refrain (“I could fall for you and not even try”) incoherent, but the sunniness of the vocals has no room for ambiguity or shading — the aural equivalent of those insufferable friends who want you to admire photos of their beautiful children.
[6]

Anthony Easton: What hath Lady Antebellum wrought? Or can we blame this on Taylor Swift – there is no reason this song should exist. The exquisite production drains rather then adds meaning. I love countrypolitian, I love chart country, I love when the slick production becomes a formalist cover for genuine heartbreak, and I even love when slick production becomes a formalist cover for slick artifice. I love to strip the fake tinsel of Nashville and find the real tinsel underneath (to paraphrase Oscar Levant) and so when I call this artificial and fake and slick and plastic, I feel like a bit of a hypocrite, because artificial and fake and slick and plastic are things that provide my life meaning. But this commits the cardinal sin – it is a betrayal of the studio as an instrument.
[3]

Josh Langhoff: Until the drummer rears his head during the outro, this inexplicable title track sounds like a Full Moon Fever throwaway, only with better singing and less interesting lyrics than what Tom Petty’s capable of. Actually, Little Big Town are also capable of better lyrics. But this does lay back and groove with some confidence, whether deserved or not.
[6]

Michaela Drapes: There’s a reason middle-of-the-road journeyman country acts never quite bust up to the top of the charts consistently and split for crossoverville. The plodding chorus and limp hook of “The Reason Why” are terribly dreary; all I hear here is bunch of really great musicians who are in desperate need of a better producer or better material — or both. The lead single from this album, “Little White Church,” performed well in this space, but I found it merely serviceable and not nearly as great as it could have been.
[3]

Matthew Harris: I have a feeling these guys and gals think they’re Fleetwood Mac Jr. Unfortunately, they seem to have skimmed past the “glorious mess” and “musical geniuses” chapters of Mac’s bio and only read up on the harmonies, bounce and jangle. The lyrics, for starters, are blank trash. A spambot with a rhyming dictionary could melt my heart faster. But I’m not an excessively cruel critic: I can give them points for scrubbing their pop clean and smooth. Sure, the song’ll never get laid in that outfit, but more the reason to give it A for effort, eh?
[6]

Isabel Cole: A promising, intriguingly subdued opening hook gives way to disappointment at verses that never rise above serviceable; singing that rings honest at the start feels just unimaginative when four (!) minutes later we are hearing the exact same delivery that wasn’t particularly interesting the first time. A few nice moments of instrumentation, but the whole affair is weighed down with a doggedly bland chorus.
[3]

Zach Lyon: If your four-part harmony could reasonably be performed by one multitracked band member, it might be time to tweak it a bit. The cleanliness here, and the complete lack of lyrical tension/depth/anything-at-all makes this fall somewhere into the uncanny valley, robotic, less-than-human, a bit nauseating. It’s the effect commercial country used to have on me before my ears grew attuned to its sounds. Maybe I still need some more experience, then.
[4]

Josh Love: Little Big Town makes me want to break out all of the hoary sports cliches about teams that play well as a unit and are more than the sum of their parts. The solo verses here, especially the guy’s, are extremely generic bordering on totally artless. But those harmonies cover over a multitude of sins.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: The song doesn’t cut, which is a real shame because they sure brought enough gauze.
[4]

Pete Baran: A country music radio mortar track. That’s mortar as in bricks and mortar, not mortar bombing. It’s a totally fine, thoroughly serviceable track which sticks together everything else around it. It is probably impossible to dislike it if you like country, but I also think it’s impossible to like it too much. Little Big Town have made better records, but if this is their low point, they should be pretty happy.
[5]

One Response to “Little Big Town – The Reason Why”

  1. @zach: aha, i love the idea of a sonic uncanny valley! that’s a perfect way to describe this song & one i suspect will come to mind a lot in the future.