Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, so…
[Video]
[6.00]
Thomas Inskeep: Karen Fairchild co-wrote this song about “looking for a God for the daughters,” and it’s a gut punch of a listen every time. “The Daughters” is a reminder of how we don’t value women in our culture — especially young girls — and the song’s arrangement (subtle) and production (quiet) serve to honor its lyric. Sound-wise this continues LBT’s use of a more hushed palette, à la 2017’s The Breaker; that helps it succeed. But ultimately this song comes down to its powerful, heart-breaking lyrics, and Fairchild’s delivery thereof, and those are killers.
[9]
Stephen Eisermann: There are numerous Instagram accounts popping up that basically repeat stereotypes about certain cultures, but there’s one I’ve seen titled something like Shit Mexicans Say that is frighteningly accurate. There tends to be at least one post a week about how Mexican daughters have to ask permission to stay somewhere over night at the age of 23 if they’re unmarried, but the guys can leave home at 16 and show up the next day with little more than “que sea la última vez, menso!” They also go on to mention how many Mexican mothers body shame their daughters but let their huskier sons live their lives simply because the women have to be better. I saw it growing up with my sister, the youngest of five and the only girl, and hearing this song brought back so many flashbacks. I remember the conversations with my sister where she told me she was ugly because she wasn’t thin, the conversations during the peak of her illness when she was thin because of her disease, yet she was overjoyed that she finally lost weight. I remember how confused I was at her happiness amidst the pain because she finally felt pretty. This song brought back those terrible memories, but it needed to; I have to make sure that my future daughter doesn’t experience that, or that her future daughters don’t experience that. This song, with the haunting vocal and piercing lyrics, evokes a visceral reaction, but goddamn if that reaction isn’t needed and welcome. Sometimes being body positive isn’t enough, sometimes we need to remind people of their mistakes. And all of the asks in this song are mistakes that parents have committed, and continue committing to this day.
[8]
Tobi Tella: A tender, beautiful mess of contradiction, illuminating all the different hoops women have to jump through and boxes they’re asked to fit inside. I would be completely fine with “Woke Country” being the new trend.
[7]
Tim de Reuse: Succeeds in the specificity of its grievances; falters in the awkward bombast of the movie-trailer orchestration that creeps into its second half.
[6]
Ryo Miyauchi: Little Big Town understand the heavy weight carried by their message of “but what about the girls?” While they build a country-song vessel as tall and poised in posture as demanded by the issue, the result is more bloodless than spotless with the band approaching the very struggles at a remove. The lyrics draw upon traditions and religion to match the scale of the matter at hand, but the immensity shrinks the personal in favor of a one-size-fits-all narrative with systematic problems that shouldn’t feel this easy to sum up.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Reciting a litany of rules is among the dullest of songwriting cliches, especially when executed with the unyielding good taste of Little Big Town’s careful and boring “The Daughters.” The arrangement forms part of the gentility that the chorus (mildly) condemns.
[4]
Katie Gill: It’s really interesting how Little Big Town’s perception of things that inhibit and oppress young women are signs of traditional femininity like trophy wives and domestic chores. Then again, their audience is white suburban parents, so it only makes sense that the things they think oppress young women fall right in the zone of what your average white suburban soccer mom thinks oppresses her child. A modern day god for the daughters has a lot more things to be concerned about than lipstick.
[3]