Sugarland – Tonight

Katherine St Asaph: Jennifer Nettles’ voice has fermented into half-rotten Leona Lewis, and someone thought “Waiting for Tonight” succeeded on its title, not on passion. This is clearly Idol‘s fault.
[2]

Brad Shoup: I brought Bill C. Malone’s touchstone Country Music USA on a recent vacation, and I must say that after hearing “Tonight,” I’m willing to declare him a prophet. Jennifer Nettles sounds great, absolutely; she shows wonderful control with the ability to let it rip. But this song is beyond undercooked, settling for grandly-held chords, portentous toms and approximately 17 minutes of that bathetic chorus. This could be a demo from Heartlight-era Neil Diamond. As a secondary concern to both myself and Mr. Malone, this isn’t country. There are zero country elements. In a scene constantly eating its own tail regarding pop success and remaining roots-true, Sugarland’s gone too far afield. The country audience seems to agree, repelling the single from the charts, but this could be an ominous warning shot.
[3]

Alex Ostroff: It’s not that I dislike a little bit of pop in my country — hell, I am still listening to “Stuck Like Glue” on the regular almost a year after we reviewed it. But ideally, country’s pop moves should incorporate the best bits of pop rather than ponderous adult contemporary ballads that even The Fray would think twice about releasing. Just because you have the voice for epic yearning doesn’t mean you should record it. (See also: Christina and/or Beyonce + Diane Warren).
[3]

Michaela Drapes: I can’t hear this passionless dirge of a love song as anything but an advertisement for time-release erectile dysfunction medication. 
[2]

Anthony Easton: It’s as successful as Faith Hill in “Like We Never Loved At All,” not as successful as Reba in “Fancy.” So in terms of oversung epics of erotic longing, it does what it needs to do. I just have no need for it or what it is offering.
[5]

Alfred Soto: Too damn tasteful — it’s the singer’s sonorous way with a vowel, as if those of us in the back row of the Meadowlands could only hear her “a’s” if she accompanied them with a left-handed flourish.
[4]

Andy Hutchins: There’s something wrong with the pacing here. It’s soft-loud-soft, except the fuzzy edges are a little too fuzzy, and there’s never a crescendo in the vocal worth talking about. This barely feels like country or pop, either, which are or were Sugarland’s genres back when 1) I was checking for Sugarland 2) Sugarland had three members. Also, is EVERYONE IN MUSIC going to a record a song about “tonight” in 2011 to cash in on the Apocalypse, and/or can I just listen to “Waiting For Tonight” (HUH-AH-OH-OH) until the fever breaks?
[4]

Zach Lyon: Vocals performed with the same conviction you might find in a pre-game national anthem, accompanied by music so damp and gray that it weighs down on your chest until you have trouble breathing.
[4]

Ian Mathers: The intro keeps tricking me into thinking that they’re covering Filter’s “Take a Picture” (underrated pre-Staind macho moping!), and then her voice does that thing where she holds a note until it’s almost laughable, and it turns out that the chorus is really just a showcase for her going incredibly big. And I normally hate this kind of singing, but “Tonight” is just so BIG that it overwhelms my reservations. I might regret this in the morning, but…
[8]

Jonathan Bogart: Maybe I’ve been playing too many power ballads in the Teenpop Fridays room at Turntable.fm, but this hit me hard, and not just because I couldn’t get the recent tragedy out of my head. I never realized what kind of pipes Jennifer Nettles had before, and while the song is mostly gesture, a composite memory of other songs that have gone before, that’s how we (or one of the ways we) assimilate experience. We tell ourselves stories in order to live, and the fact that that’s just another story doesn’t make the survival any less urgent.
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