Miranda Lambert & Chris Stapleton – A Song to Sing

And a blurb to blurb…

[Video]
[4.90]

Alfred Soto: When I saw the credits, I feared the worst: Chris Stapleton’s laborious bullfrog routine would overwhelm Miranda Lambert. Of course he and his co-writers scribble, “You’re the harmony that you just can’t find anywhere” — last words before a banishment. Commercial anxiety will do that.
[5]

Claire Davidson: I’m not sure Miranda Lambert is the best match for Chris Stapleton as a duet partner. In terms of sheer vocal talent, Lambert is definitely on par with Stapleton, but while his delivery straddles the line between laid-back and expansive, hers parlays an intimacy that only rises to Stapleton’s soaring volume in her most fiery moments—indeed, this has been a part of her brand since day one. (We are talking about a woman whose debut studio album was called Kerosene.) Nevertheless, on “A Song to Sing,” the two performers do find an opportunity to fuse some splendidly brassy harmonies with pleasant, if basic, country-soul. If only the song, which features the contributions of two formidable songwriting veterans, actually had anything to say. Instead, “A Song to Sing” is so vacuous in imagining Lambert and Stapleton’s dynamic that its lyrics simply fold into a generic metaphor about the songwriting process itself.
[5]

Ian Mathers: If the genre you followed brought you to this, of what use was the genre?
[4]

Taylor Alatorre: Leading with your best asset is one thing, but laying down only a skeletal first verse before immediately whamming the chorus button suggests either a lack of confidence or a dim view of the listener’s intelligence. And that chorus, though humming with spacious AM radio warmth, is marred by the clunky unwrapping of its title phrase, which is unfortunate for a Dave Cobb-produced number that uses songwriting as its central metaphor. Lambert and Stapleton are aiming for “Islands in the Stream” glory here, and it’s great that someone still is. But the Brothers Gibb knew how to spin soft rock hits with a mathematical sense of inevitability, as if fate really had brought Kenny and Dolly together for four exalted minutes. No one will suspend that disbelief for these duet partners, though in failing to reach that high bar they at least manage to clear most of the lower ones.
[6]

Nortey Dowuona: I have had very little contact with Dave Cobb’s work — besides this gem, I’ve never truly engaged critically with his work as a whole. As with the earlier song, the flimsy drum programming of “A Song to Sing” locks the song in a rigid back-and-forth swaying motion, preventing either Lambert or Stapleton’s voices from going anywhere exciting, apart from brief — oh so brief — moments of riffing and runs. Maybe Derrek Phillips wasn’t the problem.
[5]

Joshua Lu: Vibes this groovy deserve space to blossom; “A Song to Sing” instead feels rushed, with dense lyrics crammed into too small of a space. The chorus feels especially labored, with Lambert and Stapleton’s voices pushing so hard against the boundaries of the song that it becomes shrill.
[4]

Katherine St. Asaph: Miranda coasts into her fusty era; Chris Stapleton was there already.
[3]

Al Varela: I’m not against the idea of a modern day “Islands in the Stream,” but with two names like Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton together, I was hoping for a little more. Neither artist is at fault — they sound great together. It’s the easy-listening disco groove that’s too comfortable to flourish as much as it should. This song could have had a sick wavy guitar solo or some strings to really flesh out the emotions. As is, it’s just nice — it would work in the climax of a cheesy romcom, but it wouldn’t make you swoon and wish you had that, you know?
[6]

Julian Axelrod: Never achieves the disco catharsis promised by the first 30 seconds, but it settles into a nice groove that’s perfect for the early hours of a wedding reception before everyone’s drunk enough to dance. There’s something about collaborative songwriting that I find incredibly romantic, so it’s sweet to hear two country lifers foregrounding the romantic potential of creative partnership. Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani could never.
[7]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Lambert and Stapleton sound like they’re actively competing at phoning it in; unfortunately, they’re both outpaced by the instrumental, which is redolent with the vibe of a low-rent karaoke backing track. I’m sending this back in time to ban it from my wedding.
[4]