Going up, up, up…
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[4.40]
Scott Mildenhall: Luke Bryan sounds very silly here. It’s the apparent attempt at rabble-rousing that seals it, especially when it leads to the seemingly endless rhyming of “up” with “up”, delivered each time with a different kind of relish, but mostly ham. The guitar gives occasional edge to the atmosphere, but mostly this is daft, in a corn field all of its own making.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: For sounding like a Shania Twain Up blue version of itself, but working well anyway, this is more or less irresistible.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: Compelling for the few listens where I couldn’t figure out what (besides the last few years of bro-country) it was ripping off — and then I figured it out, and all was lost. We will mildly trouble you.
[4]
Alfred Soto: I can’t take this guy seriously. He named his most romantic song “Buzzkill” because he knows. “Turning a cornfield into a party” makes sense — he sings like he gargles Mazola oil after a breakfast smoothie. The “modern” production touches paint lipstick on a cob.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: Someone who understands how to swipe cadences and elements from other genres, thereby giving country some nice titanium bone replacements for when it needs some added flex, but unfortunately has a voice that borders on Kermitish. Luke Bryan, folks.
[2]
Anthony Easton: The synth grids, stripped down and completely devoid of connections to anything like country, are flirting where the genre ends. The isntrumentation here, and even how he sings it (not the words, but the inflection) might as well come from the Pet Shop Boys. It’s beautiful — does it even have guitars?
[7]
Brad Shoup: Have you punched a radio consultant today? This is some soggy lettuce for sure: the cod-bhangra guitar hook is different, but it’s brittle. The refrain’s a little better, indebted to 20-year-old R&B diva moves, but when he slips back into the rippity rap it’s a shallower take on the wonderfully shallow “Boys Round Here”.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: I’ve been back in America for the past week, and that means spending far more time spent in cars. Country music works best while driving down the highway (or being caught in traffic), and “Kick the Dust Up” has popped up a lot…and it sounds good in this context. Don’t think it does much to make me seek it out when I’m sitting in a Starbucks, but it has already made the trip into the city a bit more fun.
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: Bryan’s singles tend to run hot and cold, and this is as cold as it gets. Every bro-country cliché you can imagine is present and accounted for: “girl,” “back it on up,” “fill your cup up,” “barn,” “tractor,” “six-pack,” and even “we turn this cornfield into a party” (almost magnificent in its awfulness). Here’s the banjo, here’s the guitar solo, and it’s all like a Madlibs “hot country” generator.
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