The Singles Jukebox

or: “Girl in a Better Song”

[Video][Website]
[7.00]David Sheffieck: A gleeful pastiche of bro-country that embraces the style’s production while tweaking its politics. Maddie & Tae seem perfectly timed to provide a corrective to the genre, a T-Pain-covers-“Royals” for modern country, and they do an admirable job. The real test will be whether they’re given the opportunity to build a career off of it.
[8]

Josh Love: I especially like that these are actual young girls who aren’t already stars throwing down this gauntlet. It’d be one thing if this was Miranda or Carrie calling out Nashville from their perches, but it’s downright punk-rock to hear this riposte from a couple of teenagers you could very easily imagine getting propositioned to be pickup truck accessories. And the “yeah baby” in the background kind of annoyed me at first but now I grasp its charm. These girls want to party and be carefree too, they just need to set a couple of quick ground rules first.
[7]

Anthony Easton: A necessary push back to the ongoing problems of bro-country, but it is a novelty that I am not sure will sustain itself. The brilliant PR campaign, including both traditional radio and smart twitter responses, are better than a song that might be just a little bit on the nose.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Of course it’s not revolutionary. Maddie and Tae probably couldn’t have gotten this released without hitching it to the same ol’ reactionary same ol’ (Bring back the days of Conway, Conway didn’t talk about this! “I’d Love to Lay You Down” and “Tight Fittin’ Jeans” are about things other than sex and tight-fittin’ jeans.) They probably couldn’t get anything released if they weren’t “marketable,” i.e. the sort of 18-year-old thin blonde girls who’d look right at home in a country song. But the music, while still not revolutionary, is at least interesting. The guitar stuttering reminds me, weirdly, of Purity Ring (now there’s a loaded reference out of context), and the percussion emulates ’00s teenpop; the standard Southern-rock chorus arrives on time, but at least I’m not already bored.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Three listens later, I don’t know if this material requires a wink or a blow to the head. My instincts tell me that with voices this sub-Miranda the wink is all they’re capable of and not enough. To admit you’re a part of someone else’s fantasy affirms the validity of that fantasy.
[5]

Brad Shoup: You gotta fight farts with farts, I guess. They’ve nailed the “Boys ‘Round Here” sound, and the hick-hop flow. So they’ve gotten the guys’ attention; the text is strictly for the women to nod along. I can’t remember anyone recently telling their date to shut up, but neither is there a lot of talking, either. Either way, the charges in the chorus are equally damning and startling for being sung and not typed.
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: When I first read about this single, I had high hopes, which I’m delighted to say are all fulfilled; “Girl In A Country Song” delivers the goods. Not only is it quite clever lyrically (and it makes me very happy that Maddie & Tae themselves co-wrote this), but the fact that the song’s production is itself very much akin to most bro-country on the radio is a smart move. This can rub up against the very subject (and songs) it’s criticizing, and it does so with affection – there’s no malice to be found here. I hope this is a huge hit, and who knows, maybe even a rallying cry. I’m also eager to hear more from these two, because based on their debut single, they’ve (probably/hopefully) got a bunch more in ’em. Every element of this “Song” works.
[9]

Megan Harrington: I was initially tempted to qualify how enjoyable “Girl in a Country Song” is, but instead I’m choosing to believe that even casual country listeners can immediately appreciate how important it is to reject the complacency that coats bro-country with a grimy film. It’s genuinely insidious to suggest there’s a girl out there who majored in drinking and flirting or to believe that the stewardess can’t wait to get you into the airplane bathroom. “Girl in a Country Song” is, of course, also a great way to divert some of the shine on Luke Bryan over Maddie & Tae’s way. It’s an excellent gambit from a publicity standpoint, it’s a sentiment overdue for shouting, and it’s a fun four minutes.
[8]