Dropping some names…

[Video]
[5.71]

Alfred Soto: Or: Unfamous in a Small Town.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: Young has an appealing voice, but I wish Brown made this a real duet rather than just contributing some barely-there backing vocals. Lyrically, however, this is just another empty “people are famous in a small town” lowest common denominator country record. Is the Nashville Industrial Complex not even trying anymore? (Spoiler alert: no.)
[4]

Andrew Karpan: Shiny, low-budget HGTV programming in the form of a country song, the revelation here is that even the normies want something their big houses cannot buy them. Dubiously copying the same Cheers line as every restaurant review I’ve ever read, these country stars promise that it actually does exist and, in fact, can be found somewhere in Tennessee. This is actually a better cliché than all the clichés that it’s made from because it’s not untrue in a largely meta way, Nashville and all.
[4]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: This song has some of the best riff building I’ve heard in recent country. The two four note phrases hit by the mandolin are echoed throughout the rhythmic sensibilities of the guitar in the verses and the chorus. The chorus is eminently singable, and adaptable for any listener (I found myself subbing “Richmond County” in my head). I can’t decide if the song suffers or benefits from its brevity — the characters are thin sketches for a thin premise, but couldn’t they be expanded into portraits of these people rather than a small-town tropes trading card game?
[7]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: “Famous Friends” leans into cheesiness and self-mythologizing, a cutesy, gooey anthem about friendship that stops just short of being cringeworthy. There’s some weird small town authenticity politics that I don’t love about the lyrics (e.g., “Those big city friendships just aren’t the same!” energy”), but there is something too cute about the way that Chris Young and Kane Brown talk about their own friendship in the context of promoting it. Just look at the moment that Kane Brown hops on stage with a smile and wink at the CMT Music Awards, and tell me he’s not having a great time with his (actually) famous friend.
[7]

Vikram Joseph: This is wholesome, isn’t it? I’m unfamiliar with these two, but Chris Young’s fizzy guitar riffs are a nice backdrop for this celebration of little lives, and — based on the video — Kane Brown just seems delighted to be involved. “Famous Friends” mostly works because of how sincere and enthusiastic it is; Young genuinely sounds proud of these people in a way that doesn’t centre himself at all. At a taut, punchy 2:45, it’s much like a long weekend trip to your hometown: best to leave before you start to feel stagnant, with memories burnished and intact.
[7]

Jonathan Bradley: “Round here, it’s all about the people you know” is the kind of thing that chills me about small towns: the clammy feeling of a life given over to cliques and cloisters and how easy it is to be excluded from them. Young and Brown, though, feel only warmth. It’s a lovely warmth, one of shared admiration and mandolin lines and burnished guitar chords that invite rather than bully. These people sound like good people. (One is called Brandon rather than Bubba, because even we country fans might find some truths implausible.)
[6]