Got a couple plaudits but a couple ain’t enough…
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[4.67]
[4]
Zach Lyon: Well, alcohol is a depressant so this sort of makes sense.
[2]
Anthony Easton: We had this conversation for most of last year, about how many pickup-truck-fuck tracks is too many, and this might be an argument about variation in tightly contained genre signifiers. The lyrics might tell the same story, but it’s how he tells the story — his voice is slower, it isn’t nimble, and the song runs fast but thick. And though it has some hip hop notes, the layers of grinding guitar are closer to 80s hair metal than any other formal game-playing that Nashville’s been working through this year. It’s a formula, but one with more variety than credited.
[8]
Brad Shoup: Party rocking in a still, small voice: it’s nutty how everyone involved approached the material. I mean, I hear Def Leppard chords and hick-hop crunch and treadmill banjo, so why is this so forlorn? It all sounds wise, but I know Gilbert’s saying some basic shit. Tailgate pop is getting decadent.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: Bonnie and Clyde wouldn’t roll in to that thin voice and chorus, let alone going 95. I never thought I’d say this about radio country, but “Bottoms Up” needs more arena rock.
[3]
Alfred Soto: Toby Keith beat him for drinks after work, so he grafts a dead-end noir narrative on Whitesnake chords. The slow chorus is the one novelty.
[4]