The Singles Jukebox

Boring or gorgeous? You decide!

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[5.33]

Katherine St Asaph: A “broken halo,” as we were reminded so memorably by Keith Urban, usually connotes a fallen woman. But I don’t know what Stapleton means it to mean, since he doesn’t take his songwriting deeper than “they exist” and in fact cautions against delving any deeper: “they’ve all gone wherever they go,” “don’t go looking for the reasons.” (Except that the reason’s apparently that they’re “finding some other soul to save,” so I guess the halos got better?) It’s among the most unintentionally(?) nihilistic things I’ve ever heard, and the stately, stolid chorus makes it worse; I get that “Christmas Shoes” bathos would be tonally off, but I’m sure the Chris Stapleton brand can withstand expressing one emotion. Martina McBride or Maddie and Tae don’t growl or have beards, but they convince me they care.
[2]

Stephen Eisermann: The Stapletons sounds amazing, but that’s nothing new (seriously, someone sign Morgane). Chris is resting on his laurels and though the song offers an interesting perspective on angels, it’s just so boring. Please, bud, pick up the pace a bit because it’s all starting to feel a bit stale.
[4]

Alfred Soto: The less strain, the better this blowhard comes off — the basic acoustic chord progression reins in his un-barbaric yawp. And I’ll still take, say, a good Dierks Bentley track.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: My biggest problem with the two volumes of Stapleton’s From A Room isn’t their songs, which are generally good (I mean, the guy can write), or his singing, which is full-throated and rich; it’s the fact that so much of the albums are underproduced. I’m sure that’s a purposeful decision on the part of Dave Cobb, but I’m not a fan. So “Broken Halos” is a relief on many levels: not only is it fully produced and arranged (look: drums!), but it cuts through the morass of the overproduction endemic to much of the current country climate (especially on radio). Stapleton’s wife Morgane provides her usual, gorgeous harmonies (she’s the Jessi to his Waylon), and even though it’s slow in tempo, “Halos” reads as great country rock to me — tell me you couldn’t hear the Allmans doing this (the late Gregg, especially). His best single since “Tennessee Whiskey.” 
[7]

Katie Gill: This is such a beautiful antithesis to soooo much of the Keiths, the Blakes, and the Lukes that flood the country airwaves with a lot of the same sounds. The song itself is repetitive as hell (and REALLY could do with a little change up every now and then), but the grit in Stapleton’s voice, the simple yet beautiful harmonies, and the relatively understated production helps elevate it to something more. The arrangement helps negate the fact that it’s pretty much three minutes of the same phrase: specifically, that moment at around 2:05 is superb. This song deserves all the airplay and chart climbs it’s getting.
[8]

Anthony Easton: Three minutes and resting heavily on a set of hooks, this song is incredibly smart about how pop works–in the midst of all this bullshit about somethings being more authentic than others, and as much of the drag of rough guitar and flirtatious twang, we forgot about Stapleton’s power as a songwriter–not in the Townes Van Zandt literary sense of that word, but in the Brill Building sheen of it. You can rough shit up, but the chorus on this is impeccable. 
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