The Singles Jukebox

1. The mess he made when he went away; 2. the cross I bear that he gave to me; 3…

[Video]
[4.57]

Alfred Soto: A man should know how to change a tire, use a shotgun, and catch a fish? Well! I guess this makes me half a man. To listen to how Lainey Wilson discards a wan but pretty melody on reversed stereotypes is to experience the shriveling of one’s soul. “If you really love a woman, you don’t let her go,” she avers. Well, hold on too tightly you smother her, especially if she knows how to change tires, use a shotgun, and catch fish.
[1]

Will Adams: While the melody is winsome, the gender essentialism is noxious. Perhaps one also oughta know to avoid cliché.
[3]

Juana Giaimo: This kind of lyrics that give life-lessons are only fun if the artists don’t take it seriously. Hearing that a woman can do the same things a man can do (and I’m not sure shooting a shotgun is actually something to be proud of) and that “if you really love a woman, you don’t let her go” sounds incredibly simplistic and boring —  and that slow guitar strum doesn’t help either.  
[4]

Natasha Genet Avery: Maybe I’m too much of a gay hag, but it’s impossible for me to be invested in gender “oughts” anymore. Lainey Wilson’s voice sounds bright and pleasant atop an inoffensive mid-tempo mandolin track, but “Things A Man Oughta Know” lacks the backstory, emotional core, or self-awareness that could make this premise interesting. Lainey hints at an ex-boy who “who gave up and got it wrong,” but doesn’t take the opportunity to insert herself into the narrative, opting to instead rattle off a manhood checklist of life skills (car maintenance, using a stud finder, etc.) and questionable coping mechanisms (“keep it hidden when a heart gets broke”). I prefer the comically raunchy depiction of Real Men™ in “Dirty Looks” to this weak attempt at subversion. 
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: That’s a mandolin on a mainstream country record! That’s also a set of smart lyrics, in which she’s not just talking about changing tires: “How to know when it’s love/How to stay when it’s tough/How to know you’re messin’ up a good thing/And how to fix it ‘fore it’s too late.” Oooh, that goes deep. It’s all aided strongly by a great, simple production job by Jay Joyce, and a vocal from Wilson that gets to the heart of the song. 
[8]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: Wilson plays a lot with syncopation on the verse here, tricking me into thinking this was a true rarity: a country song in 7. Either way, her defiance of rhythmic convention is reinforced by mountain river mandolins over softly beeping synths. The instrumentation delineated the structure of the song, with compressed electric guitars taking the ball on the chorus, with a touch of ’70s hair rock lead on the bridge. The lyrics beg to be read as something more but play it safe in the chorus, the weakest piece of an overall well-made song. 
[7]

Katherine St Asaph: Starts off doing some delicate Ashley Monroe stuff — a contrast to the burly guns-and-mechanics lyrics, and one I think largely works — but succumbs soon enough to country bombast: overblown chorus, foghorn autotune, guitar lumbering in. The whole thing just doesn’t make sense, either — the “I know a few things a man oughta know” suggests that the man in question doesn’t, so did they break up since he couldn’t shoot a bear or shotgun a beer or suppress his emotions?
[5]