The Singles Jukebox

MEOTJIN!!!

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[5.57]

Alfred Soto: The One Tree Hill actress sings a would-be affirmation over banjo and chords co-written by Jamie Lynn Spears. I can’t parse the emotions though. A mangled attempt at cleverness like “I got the boy/she’s got the man” requires humor or rue but not a blank.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: “I Got the Boy” is a fine, strong country song cut from the cloth of rueful reminiscence, and it’s grown on me with just about every listen. Credit co-writers Connie Harrington (CMA and ACM Song of the Year “I Drive Your Truck”), Tim Nichols (CMA, ACM, and [Country] Grammy Song of the Year “Live Like You Were Dying”) and Jamie Lynn Spears, who collectively nailed the right tone here. Credit as well the solid hand of super-producer Scott Hendricks, who knew when to turn up the mournful guitar and when to spotlight Kramer. But give the most credit to Kramer herself, whose delivery is the real key: the occasional catch in her voice, which conveys so much sadness and regret, sells the song more than anything.
[8]

Megan Harrington: Jana Kramer is still struggling to find an identity (in fact, I think that Layla Grant struggles to write a heartfelt song plot on Nashville was ripped from Kramer’s life), but though “I Got the Boy” isn’t notable for anything that it is, it is notable for its profound lack of both taunting and jealousy. Aside from a small moment where Kramer wonders whether she got the superior model, the song sticks strictly to facts, illustrating how two different relationships really aren’t comparable. Country is so often tagged as a regressive space, especially for women, but Kramer is a model of satisfying closure. She dwells in the past just long enough to reflect on the way life changes, careful to note that who we were isn’t what defines us. 
[7]

Juana Giaimo: Although this song may suggest maturity on a first listen — in the sense that it’s a rational look towards the past and being satisfied with the present — I can’t avoid hearing a certain resentment. Maybe it’s because it recalls adolescence, but there is a kind of childish competition in the lyrics. On Genius, Jama Kramer herself wrote “I got something that she didn’t get,” which to me, tears down her whole “mature” argument (she explains, for example, how she met her husband and writes that “he’s awesome”). It’s almost as if she wanted to reassure us that she isn’t still in love with her high school sweetheart. I’m afraid Jana Kramer is too conscious and took away all the fun from her teenage years. Maybe it would be better if she just left the past untouched. 
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: An interpreter less bland than Jana Kramer might have brought out the pregnancy subtext; otherwise this is a weepie a shade too slow.
[4]

Anthony Easton: If this does better than the new Musgraves, it might shut up all those folks howling about what is real country or false country. It’s pretty bog standard, but it reads old fashioned enough to be a statement. That said, her voice has a smart kind of burr, the instrumentation runs tight and the parallelism on what could be a standard list song has a kind of elegance. I think I would like this better if you think it is about the current state of male artists in Nashville, but it’s perfectly passable. 
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: Did she also get the first pick of songs?
[5]