Another Year In America June 11 and 18, 2009

[koganbot]

As Another Year In America returns from vacation with a two-fer, the Black Eyed Peas fend off the Black Eyed Peas to stay atop the chart, "You Belong With Me" continues its Indian summer, and country stalwarts Chesney and Bentley welcome the real summer with a couple of bright tracks from the night.

The Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling": After scoring one improbable piece of brilliance after another from a seemingly endless variety of left fields, the Peas hit a slow, stodgy DOR dribbler to short, with just enough melody and just enough Fergie to beat out the throw to first. BORDERLINE TICK.

Kenny Chesney "Out Last Night": A party song about partying, Kenny never loses his sense of relaxation, while kicking this friendly two-step through the ceiling and up the charts. TICK.

Kings Of Leon "Use Somebody": Hasn't this been around for eight months or something? Is a good tune with a sense of swell that's buoying rather than blatant, but it's burdened with a forced guttural rock voice that I can't stand. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Lady Antebellum "I Run To You": And a track that's been on the country chart for ages finally moves Top 40. Placid and pretty MOR mush. In the vid, a harried woman gives up her seat at the bus stop to a woman with two kids, feels reinvigorated by this sacrifice. BORDERLINE TICK.

Dierks Bentley "Sideways": Cheerful guy on the make makes cheery song 'bout bein' on the make. Country cats make hick-hop boyband moves in the vid. TICK.

Comments

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

I dunno, hard to buy that's the actual criteria when Will includes plenty of non-country singles most Jukeboxers aren't likely to like. I mean, if Jukeboxers liking songs is mandatory, why bother including Lady Gaga and Linkin Park tracks? (And I can't imagine he thought many Jukeboxers would like Darius Rucker, either. If Hootie's the best he could do, seems to me he's not looking all that hard. But what do I know.)

(Btw, I'm not saying Will doesn't do stellar work otherwise, because actually, I think just the opposite. The site just gets better and better. I know how hard it is to turn so many blurbs from different people into a conversation, and he pulls it off almost every time. That's amazing.)

Also discouraged about country's prospects in that '00s Poptimists poll -- as much as I like "Party Up," it's hard to get worked up about DMX maybe not making the cut when, chances are, no country singles will make the cut until, what, "Before He Cheats", maybe? Or "You Belong With Me"? But maybe I'm just cranky.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Frigging HTML. Please reread previous post with only the "non" in "non-country" and "no" in "no country singles" italicized.

[koganbot]

Here it is:

dunno, hard to buy that's the actual criteria when Will includes plenty of non-country singles most Jukeboxers aren't likely to like. I mean, if Jukeboxers liking songs is mandatory, why bother including Lady Gaga and Linkin Park tracks? (And I can't imagine he thought many Jukeboxers would like Darius Rucker, either. If Hootie's the best he could do, seems to me he's not looking all that hard. But what do I know.)

(Btw, I'm not saying Will doesn't do stellar work otherwise, because actually, I think just the opposite. The site just gets better and better. I know how hard it is to turn so many blurbs from different people into a conversation, and he pulls it off almost every time. That's amazing.)

Also discouraged about country's prospects in that '00s Poptimists poll -- as much as I like "Party Up," it's hard to get worked up about DMX maybe not making the cut when, chances are, no country singles will make the cut until, what, "Before He Cheats", maybe? Or "You Belong With Me"? But maybe I'm just cranky.

Back being Frank: Well, also, and this is my opinion and it might not be Will's, the Jukeboxers write poorly about the country stuff they don't like, while writing well about the other music they don't like. But also I'm sure Will is making calculations about what the readers are likely to be interested in. Someone like Rucker has higher name recognition among likely readers than Chesney or Covington do. Of course, such decisions become self-fulfilling. But coverage of metal and adult contemporary is just as sparse.