Monday, May 4th, 2009

Caitlin & Will – Address in the Stars

Can They Duet? Yes they can (sorry)…



[Video][Website]
[4.67]

Rodney J. Greene: What people who say all country sounds alike think all country sounds like.
[3]

Hillary Brown: A big, swoopy, sappy ballad that’s probably too belty, but Caitlin, whoever she is, has the voice to carry it, and while it’s all eminently calculated, it’s very nicely put together. I’d expect to get used to hearing it.
[6]

Frank Kogan: Caitlin Lynn can wrench your heart when she’s just singing evenly, and for the inaugural single she and Will do a slip-sliding, lacerating duet about games of infidelity and vengeance… which the record company then withdraws in favor of this slush. Not to say that this is a bad one, her missing her dead Aunt Lisa, and when she wails in the chorus she’s effectively heart-wrenching, throat-clutching, etc. But the other was something special.
[7]

David Raposa: This song would’ve been more than fine as a brick-subtle glossy and spacious one-sided duet. Whoever the hell thought that this Colossus-sized tear-jerker wasn’t already cranked up to 11, and actually NEEDED help via the overcooked strings from Aerosmith’s “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” and some arcing electric-guitar “falling star” bullshit to put it over an already-surpassed top, should go back to soundtracking employee orientation videos for Best Buy.
[5]

Martin Skidmore: I like Caitlin very much: a strong voice with the hint of breakage that so many great country singers have had. Will provides good harmonies, and also seems to inspire her to give it everything when he joins in (which reminds me of Carl & Pearl Butler, though the M/F roles are reversed).
[7]

Martin Kavka: The singing on this new-country power ballad is incredibly powerful; it’s easy to see why Caitlin & Will won CMT’s Can You Duet. But it sounds like every other countryish power ballad released to radio over the last decade, and thereby commits the unforgivable crime of making the song’s subject matter — the mourning of a loved one — banal. Caitlin expresses her unfinished mourning by saying that there’s no address in the stars. The only empathy I can muster is to say I too would like to speak with my late partner again in places where we spent time together; unfortunately, there’s no zipcode in my ass.
[2]

Ian Mathers: Yes, modern country is basically AOR pop with extra toppings these days, but growing up semi-rural I still respond badly to the kind of countrified voice Caitlin has, I generally hate AOR pop, and the wince-inducingly lame conceit of this song is even more sentimental than most of this crap.
[2]

Edward Okulicz: Massive, unsubtle, cornball weepie. The pre-chorus reminds me of something else and I love it… even if that thing is Bryan Adams’ “Please Forgive Me”. The lyrics are trite but the singing is sincere, the guitars are pleasing and the drums signpost the emotional punctum perfectly.
[7]

Michaelangelo Matos: Heartfelt.
[3]

5 Responses to “Caitlin & Will – Address in the Stars”

  1. Wait… they look like an Evanescence reject and a short-order cook at a sub-Denny’s diner?

  2. I wish I had been drinking something when I read this one so that Kavka’s blurb could have had the spittake it so richly deserves.

  3. Oh wow, somehow I missed Kavka my first time through.

  4. It happens, Rodney.

  5. I wish Matos’ reply had followed Kavka’s.