The Singles Jukebox

But he’s just a boy…

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[3.11]

Crystal Leww: I’ve spent a lot of time defending bro-country, especially against charges of misogyny, and even I find this to be total complete utter sexist garbage. 
[0]

Anthony Easton: An absurd piece of gender essentialism, with King singing under Dierks and without Dierks’ usual humour or self-awareness. This is frustrating in a year where country by and for women has gotten shockingly good. 
[2]

Cassy Gress: I had my hopes up at first: Dierks’s first verse nearly sounds like it was sung in the street outside a bar. This song has its heart somewhere near the right place, but there’s a little too much patronizing “girls are fragile and tender-hearted” in here for me; the only line where it steps out of that is Elle’s “she don’t have the luxury to let herself go.” (Some of us do, not necessarily because we’ve earned it, but because we just don’t give enough of a shit about what anyone else thinks of our appearance.) Speaking of Elle getting the one different line, it’s super weird to hear a song about how much it sucks to be a girl in a break-up, sung by a man with a woman harmonizing. Shouldn’t it be the other way around, or at least taking turns? Sounds like Elle knows it, too.
[4]

Katie Gill: I’m glad that Elle King made her way to country. Her brand of Americana was always too raw and unpolished for the pop charts — the fact that “Ex’s and Oh’s” got as big as it did honestly surprised the hell out of me. That being said, I’m sorry she’s stuck with Dierks Bentley, a country singer whose main distinction is that his name is Dierks. I’m also sorry that she’s stuck on a song that’s the preachy and half-assed result of Dierks reading the final essay from his daughter’s Gender and Sexuality 101 class.
[3]

Alfred Soto: One of those lists set to music in which we learn girls don’t throw any ol’ t-shirt on and walk to a bar, don’t text their friends to say, “I gotta get laid tonight” (as if Dierks Bentley hasn’t written songs about picking up girls in bars), and “can’t just switch it off every time they feel something.” The spacious mix and restrained picking are lovely; it’s a pretty song. Not as good as Joe Jackson’s “It’s Different for Girls,” though. I suppose he thought persuading Elle King, who is, Dierks was told, a woman, gave him cover. I guess co-writer Shane McAnally wanted to forget he’s helped Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves come up with their own refutations. Wrong and wrong.
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: The lyric is so naïve it’s adorable. (Have the writers never heard “Habits”? Surely they’ve heard “Mama’s Broken Heart,” considering Shane McAnally wrote the damn thing.) The arrangement is so hackily stirring it’s hilarious.
[2]

Brad Shoup: Bentley’s verse-in-hand readings suggest a man splitting the difference until he can pick a side. Is he quietly chuckling about how good he’s got it? Is he just blowing his buds’ minds? The addition of King implies he’s sharing absolute truth; the doleful cello confirms it. After a couple of singles that were practically cartoonish in their consumption, King going glum next to Bentley’s knowing nuzzles is an unwelcome change. The track paddles in place thanks to a nice array of preening, crying guitars. Shane McAnally’s confounding 2016 continues.
[3]

Edward Okulicz: Love the way Dierks’ voice sounds with female support, as with “Bourbon in Kentucky.” Also love the fast-moving storm clouds of the strings. The song’s a leaden third-person mope though, even if you take it as a monologue from one girl rather than a statement meant to be taken literally for all girls.
[5]

Will Rivitz: I would go ahead and pan this song, as I imagine most of my compatriots are doing, but three things stop me: 1) This is Dierks Bentley, whose “Drunk On A Plane” is one of my favorite songs of any genre, so automatic bonus points for that. 2) This is country, a genre which produced “God Made Girls” as a legitimate attempt to talk about gender, so all things considered this isn’t the worst thing that could have happened. 3) I know this is a mildly patronizing view, but bless his little heart, Dierks is really trying his best to argue that gender parity doesn’t exist yet, even in the context of something as frivolous as a night out. Like, obviously a lot of what he’s saying is regressive and uncomfortable, but this seems like it’s coming from a genuine place instead of a malicious one. It feels less like the casual nice-guy misogyny from guys like Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett and more like a song from a guy who’s just had his eyes pried open a slit to the injustices of the world we live in, and who among us — especially cis straight men like Dierks and myself — haven’t made a couple stumbles in our initial approach to gender equality movements that we’d come to regret later? “Different For Girls” is far from perfect, but if it’s the first step on a long road towards that unattainable perfection, I’ll welcome it with open arms.
[5]