Hey they do let the blokes sing on their singles still!
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[6.57]
Alfred Soto: Although I hear more pain in the organ and guitar twang, Jimi Westbrook tries and largely succeeds. Whether co-writer Lori McKenna is responsible for the line about not making the evening news I’ll leave to ASCAP. An estimable simulacrum of heartbreak.
[6]
Thomas Inskeep: The commercial/radio reaction to LBT’s album The Breaker has been fascinating, and troubling: after the Taylor Swift-penned “Better Man” hit #1 on the Country Airplay chart, follow-up “Happy People” scraped to #46, their lowest-charting single ever. And this one has yet to crack the 60-position chart at all. Troubling, because I find The Breaker the best album of their career and one of the best of 2017 overall. That said, I kind of get it, too, because most of the album is muted and understated and not at all in line with “hit country” of the moment; to my ears, it sounds kind of like if Brian Eno had helmed a country record, which is a big piece of my love for it. “When Someone Stops Loving You” features a lead vocal from Jimi Westbrook, and he turns out a deeply soulful, beautiful performance, backed of course by those phenomenal LBT harmonies. This is a hushed record, and I absolutely love it. And sadly, it won’t be a hit either.
[9]
Tim de Reuse: If it could all be as charmingly pathetic as the defeated mutter of “or maybe just the couch” then it’d be a genuinely engaging woe-is-me piece; regrettably, the chorus is aiming a little too grandiose to let the song wallow in its own misery.
[5]
Scott Mildenhall: It’s the prosaic response to Skeeter Davis that she maybe did but also definitely didn’t need, and it’s far less compelling. Little Big Town look to moor at a maudlin monotony, while she sails away into the ocean of the lonesome. The latter is the one that seems more comforting.
[5]
Stephen Eisermann: A different voice leading a Little Big Town song is always welcome, but it doesn’t always work. Here, Jimi takes the lead on this close-your-eyes and lift-your-arms ballad about losing someone’s affection, and no better choice could’ve been made. His voice has a warmth and rasp often found in the harmonies, but he rarely gets the chance to lead. A song like this one needs a voice with enough groove to offset the heartache in the lyrics and music, and this styling is one that fits Jimi’s voice perfectly. Oddly enough, what is normally LBT’s strength ends up being a weakness here, as their harmonies only disrupt the pleasant flow that Jimi gives the track. They sound like the bad backup singers that seem to plague the best live vocalists; you kinda just want to say “girl… stop.”
[7]
Austin Brown: Smartly observed and (for this writer at least) personally affecting details, unfortunately strung together inexpertly by an oh-so-obvious lurching barroom rhythm section. That said, obviousness won’t matter a lick to the drunk singles who, I can already imagine, will uninhibitedly belt this in unison at last call, swaying arm in arm and choking out a sob at “maybe just the couch.”
[6]
Edward Okulicz: It’s got a smart and economic lyric and a sweet melody, and was a highlight of their concert that I saw this year, a really nice surprise as the last-but-one song on The Breaker and probably too gentle to stand out on radio. But I like how it handles devastation so matter-of-factly — rather than blow the sadness up to epic scale (a Little Big Town strength, cf. “Tornado”), this one keeps it life-size and subtle. Really, it’s a surprise it works so well as it seems to play to none of LBT’s big commercial or critical strengths, but work it does. Kind of surprised they didn’t go for a big pop song as the next single like “Night On Our Side” but not complaining either.
[8]