The Singles Jukebox

On the road again…

[Video]
[6.78]

Alfred Soto: For a while Lainey Wilson was a secret a couple of us critics passed around. Then she enjoyed a helluva 2022 and 2023. Blessed with a twang equal parts dulcet and tensile, she’s terrific inhabiting ballads and excellent on hootchie-coos like “Hang Tight Honey,” good enough as a song (check out the three-note guitar screech before the chorus) but as processed through Wilson’s pipes a declaration of faith.
[8]

TA Inskeep: The gasoline-revved single Miranda Lambert hasn’t given us in years, this moves at a crazy (especially for mainstream country) clip. Jay Joyce’s aggressive production gives this a thumping, propulsive, white-funky feel — akin to, I dunno, the James Gang’s “Funk #49“? — while Wilson sells the hell out of it. Save the stupid line about her lover’s “blue-collar kiss,” this is great.
[8]

Taylor Alatorre: A bit of lost songwriting wisdom from the pre-SoundScan era: if you rock out hard enough and unapologetically enough (and competently enough, though this is optional), you can make even a line like “blue-collar kiss” sound essential, like the song would suffer irreducibly if it were taken away. “Blue-collar kiss” doesn’t mean anything, just like a miniature “Highway Star” guitar solo doesn’t mean anything, just like shouting the song’s title in the middle of that guitar solo doesn’t mean anything. What it does do is further build up the sense that the singer, and by extension the listener, can get away with almost anything here — in this sonic universe, in this honky-tonk, or a well-crafted approximation thereof. What it does is make me type the words “lainey wilson tour” into Google as I’m writing this.
[9]

Mark Sinker: Idly wondering “are road-songs still much of a thing (the way they used to be)?” when the middle eight kicks into full and quite surprising glam-stomp. Would the rest of the song be better if it fed more off this sound? Glimpses of the ’70s can be nostalgic lovebombs, sure, but I don’t miss them. Because they sucked. 
[5]

Ian Mathers: I’m going to remember my unaccountable animus towards this perfectly decent little song the next time I’m baffled that someone finds the markers of one of my preferred genres mysteriously enraging. But in the meantime, this is the best I can do for what might as well be nails on a chalkboard to me.
[5]

Jonathan Bradley: Brick-walled bonhomie that’s so weighed down by forced cheer that is has no chance at delivering the momentum it promises.
[4]

Nortey Dowuona: Driver Williams can rip a good guitar solo, I guess? What does Jay Joyce have against drums? 
[7]

Katherine St. Asaph: Southern comfort food served with oomph and familiarity. The sort of song where my musical gut refuses to agree with my rational mind that I haven’t actually heard this at a dozen barbecues throughout my life.
[7]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: I’m an absolute sucker for these kinds of country-rock road warrior songs — I stand by my prior remarks that Luke Combs’ “Doin’ This” is a [10] — but this is more fun than most takes on the style. It breaks from Skynyrd-esque power balladry to harken back to something older and weirder, drawing on the loose, frenetic energy of Stax party records. It’s a triumphant record, the organ stabs and guitar riffs and even that incessant “ooh-ooh-ooh” hook coming together to sound like a coronation while never losing the joy of its groove. 
[8]