Is it just me that looks at this and thinks of Tracy Jordan and Liz Lemon trying to out-laugh each other?…
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[4.11]
Anthony Easton: Well it is hella less creepy then the last one, and her voice maintains some twinge of twang, which is nice, and the studio is used to full effect, and yet, it’s straight down the middle — how can a song about heartbreak and wanting things to be right have this little emotion?
[4]
Mallory O’Donnell: Remember when country breakup songs actually made you feel low-down and miserable? Between this and the Sara Evans, I get the feeling that Nashville heartbreak merchants are getting a little bit too well-adjusted to do us any good. Where have all the bad times gone?
[3]
Alfred Soto: No, it won’t be alright again — not with those clichés. The “little miss” refrain does all the work for them.
[3]
Jonathan Bradley: Jennifer Nettles’ voice has that special swelling quality that suits perfectly these kind of generous, restorative tunes. “Little Miss Big Ol’ Heart beats open” is a touch sentimental, but only because it spells out the rousing warmth Sugarland usually just smuggles into its tracks. I’m more than happy for this to stick around on radio for a while yet.
[6]
Martin Skidmore: I really don’t care for the lower of the two female voices here, which sounds rather flat to me, musically and emotionally. The song rather plods along too, with incomprehensibly vague lyrics, pleasant as its tune sometimes is.
[4]
Zach Lyon: Apparently losing the other girl has made Sugarland sound like Reba + faint male backup vocals. Only sonically, though, as I’m not sure Reba these days would ever release something this lyrically interesting or limiting. The verses are so good, moving and filled with real compassion despite my having no idea if it’s about a daughter, sister, friend, other girl from Sugarland, herself etc. Clearly someone worth the song, though, given her delivery and the amount of standout lines to quote. Unfortunate that it’s all momentum leading to a minuscule chorus that almost isn’t there. They try to make up for it with a bombastic middle eight, which isn’t doing the song any favors. This’ll be mired in the frustrating “could’ve been so much better” purgatory for me for a long time.
[7]
Josh Langhoff: This seems to further Sugarland’s long sad slide into sounding like big fat nothingness — my wife suggests, “It sounds like generic Christian rock,” while I’m leaning more towards Melissa Etheridge. I’m trying to think of another band that started off bursting with so much life, only to wind up singing empty assurances to adult contemporary radio. Bon Jovi?
[1]
Jer Fairall: Sweet and understated musically; empathetic and a little too understated lyrically. I feel their compassion for their subject, and appreciate that Jennifer Nettles’ husky yet plainspoken vocals never seem to be shouting, condescendingly, on high to its subject in the way that someone like Carrie Underwood might, but whoever this Little Miss is, she is so thinly and vaguely defined by the words being addressed to her that it is difficult to be as moved by the sentiment as I’m sure we’re meant to. Odd that I would be requesting more exposition from country lyrics, I suppose, but this is one that could have actually benefitted from a little more intimate detail even if what we risked learning about the character turned out to be nothing new.
[6]
Chuck Eddy: Believe it or not, when I reviewed The Incredible Machine, I actually singled this fatigued mediocrity out as both a standout cut and the CD’s most country-sounding track. Maybe I was wrong; more likely, the album’s even worse than I thought. Either way, this now hits me as bad Lady Antebellum with hints of Bruce Hornsby piano. Which admittedly does beat bad Brit-pop.
[3]