(Pictured: Not a one-man band.)
[Video]
[4.00]
Tobi Tella: I’m just not sure that Old Dominion is essential in any way. Doesn’t current country already have enough guys with punchable faces, much less a whole band of them? They’ve always been smug and refused to scratch beneath the surface, and this song does the same. The production and melody are fine, but there’s no passion or heft behind any of these lyrics or Matthew Ramsey’s vocal performance. Nice metaphor if you hear it once, tired and labored song.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: There seems to be a market right now for really thin, twinkly songs that are a bit wistful and a lot boring. Without wanting to be horrible about Old Dominion, I think this song is filling a similar spot on the country charts to which “Memories” is on the Hot 100.
[4]
Alfred Soto: The guitars sparkle — when don’t they? Sparkles come by the yard in Nashville. All it sells is sincerity, and at least the first minutes I bought it. Then the “old jeans” reminded me Old Dominion used “rolling stone” in that first minute and I died of bored.
[3]
Julian Axelrod: On paper, a song that perfectly splices “In My Blood” and “What’s My Age Again?” with a direct quote from Mason Ramsey’s “Famous” (three of the best songs of the past, I don’t know, century?) should be extremely my shit. This never reaches the explosive heights of those songs, but part of its modest charm is that it never tries.
[6]
Thomas Inskeep: I like the lyrical conceit here, comparing being a one man band (which the protagonist doesn’t want to be) to being single. I wish, however, that the production wasn’t so light, the song so simple. There’s nothing here to grab on to.
[4]
Katie Gill: Baby take my hand, cause I don’t wanna be an overwrought metaphor stretched way too thin. My pedantic heart can’t help but think that maybe, just maybe don’t have your one man band metaphor be accompanied by harmonies and an actual honest-to-god band.
[4]