Maddie & Tae’s “Shut Up and Fish” Is Kind of a Stupid Song That Says a Lot
Maddie & Tae receive credit for returning country to the roots of the music by writing their own songs, having those songs actually convey stories, and including country instrumentation in their music. But the component that may tie them most strongly to country music’s lineage does not have to do with style or instrumentation. When they released their hit single “Girl in a Country Song,” we wondered if the electronic drums and record scratches starting the song off were sincere or sarcasm. In the end, it turned out to be the latter.
Comedy, whether cornpone, sarcastic, or even dirty at times, was and remains one of the most recognizable ingredients to the authentic country music experience. Early Grand Ole Opry shows all had comedy sketches, including from full-time comedians as cast members. Then fast forward to the songwriting of Roger Miller and Shel Silverstein, and songs like “A Boy Named Sue,” and it becomes apparent that the comedy of country is just as absent today as the steel guitar. It’s what “Little” Jimmy Dickens made his career off of, and what Brad Paisley has leaned on later in his career (with questionable success, admittedly). What would Hee-Haw be without it’s humor that was as stupid as it was warm and familiar, and made audiences feel at home?
Maddie & Tae have become the perfect foil to today’s male country stars. They’re like the Minnie Pearl of country music’s Millennial generation. It doesn’t mean they can’t be serious. The success of their last single “Fly” certainly calls into question my prognostication prowess. I thought it didn’t have prayer, and it would be another one and done female act at radio. But I’ll be damned if the song didn’t make it into the Top 10, proving that it’s a new day for country women after Keith Hill’s “Tomato” comments. But “Fly” has run its course and it’s time for a new single, and Maddie & Tae have selected “Shut Up and Fish.”
Staunch traditionalists are never going to give Maddie & Tae a serious chance, but that doesn’t mean their music (and “Shut Up and Fish”) doesn’t symbolize a wholesale reversal of course for what we’re used to the mainstream serving. The song probably relies a little too much on the standardized over-driven Tele sound early on, indicative of 90’s-00’s country and not necessarily in a good way. But “Shut Up and Fish” finds its groove, has an infectious chorus, and fits right into the space Maddie & Tae have made for themselves in country that nobody else is fulfilling.
The duo certainly doesn’t want to paint themselves into a corner by becoming a one-trick pony this early in their career. That might have been the misstep that has doomed Kacey Musgraves at radio. But they also have to lean on their strengths, and one of them is using wit in their music. It’s not even that “Shut Up and Fish” is especially funny, it’s just a perspective we don’t hear in country music much these days so it feels fresh and young and invigorated. You can see young girls getting into a song like this because it includes this “hard to get” quotient foreign to popular country, and it helps that the inspiration for the song comes from a true story.
Cutting against the grain and keeping listeners on their toes has worked well for Maddie & Tae, and “Shut Up and Fish” once again exudes this feeling like they’re in control, and empowering the heroine against the dundering boy. “Shut Up and Fish” is kind of a stupid song that says a lot, and arguably says it better than “Girl in a Country Song” because it says it in a subtle manner.
And releasing “Shut Up and Fish” shows guts, and moxie, and even a little leadership. This isn’t the safe route to a single progression from a record. But it’s the one that best represents who Maddie & Tae are, and what they have to offer that is unique in an otherwise dull marketplace.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:04 am
“Staunch traditionalists are never going to give Maddie and Tae a chance.”
To be fair, I don’t think Country Music is a place for “kiddy” acts. I’d rather listen to an adult sing about adult themes. It’s why I don’t like the bros, who at least pretend to be children, or Taylor Swift, who was a child during her country run, or Tanya Tucker, or Billy Gilman.
Unfortunately, as I’ve stated previously, the traditionalist crowd makes no compromises. Anything even remotely “non-country” dooms an act’s chance of appealing to them. “Dirt” didn’t win over any traditionalists, and even though some of our dude-bros made country songs early on, the country crowd has excommunicated them.
Not that they should be making compromises, because they shouldn’t. especially not with the bros.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:59 am
I’m 20, and if I remember correctly, you’re my age or younger. Are we not country because we’re young? Young people can be country too, so why can’t there be country songs from a younger perspective?
October 21, 2015 @ 3:23 pm
My answer to that, would be that I am 20. I’ve lived the life of a 20 year old person, and I know what being 20 feels like.
Why would I want to listen to music that is just a reiteration of my daily life?
A “twenty-something” song about “being 20” provides me no new thought process, it doesn’t offer me any new insight into mine or anyone else’s world.
October 21, 2015 @ 4:24 pm
Um… I thought country was supposed to be music that people can relate to. Real experiences. Real problems. What are “songs about being 20?” There’s nothing wrong with songs written from a 20-year old perspective, or even a teenage perspective. There’s ways to do a “young love story” in a traditional country way. There could be a song with that teenaged angst angle that still has everything that makes a song a true country song. That may sound kinda strange to y’all, but if it’s sincere, that kind of song could work. Who says kids can’t love country music, and even relate to it? There can be country songs for everyone.
“Why would I want to listen to music that is just a reiteration of my daily life?” That’s exactly what a lot of people want. They want to listen to music that means something to them, that they may even be feeling at the time. Have you ever listened to sad songs when you were blue? I downloaded a hundreds of country songs when I was going through my major depressive suicidal stage, including the entire 60 #1 hits by George Strait. Some of those earlier Strait songs were downright depressing. I would listen to sad songs because I felt that way. Sadly, that’s also the Bro-Country philosophy. “We’re just singin’ ’bout what we do every day!”
October 21, 2015 @ 5:39 pm
I don’t think that Luke Bryan’s endless parties are very real.
I don’t think Taylor Swift’s inability to stay in a relationship are real.
You admitted to downloading all that George Strait, but I bet your father never really left on a train forever. “Trains Make Me Lonesome.”
I want music that presents “new” thoughts.
“All the years you took from her, just by being born.” Isbell
“What did Mandela do all day, how did he count his hours. He worked in his garden so small, beneath the guards on the prison wall, he felt their hateful eyes, how they despised the seeds of hope he had sown.” Ostroushko
My problem with current country music is that it is made by nothing but young people (or creepy grownups trying to act like young people)
Don’t you think the reason you downloaded all that Country Music was because it had been written with things like wisdom and experience? things that only age can grant?
October 21, 2015 @ 8:01 pm
Fuzzy, I disagree that younguns can’t write good country songs. I’ve written some that weren’t cheesy or angsty at all. There’s nothing inherently stupid about us. In fact, I’d say my time in (couch the nuthouse cough) has given me some things to write and sing about that others would find unique. I got real low and got my life back together. I don’t believe wisdom and song quality are a strong positive correlation. You don’t have to be over 30 to write interesting to write good country songs. No, Luke Bryan’s parties are not very real. That’s part of what makes Bro-Country not be country music. BTW… My father DID do something like that… Shows what you know.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:52 pm
Hank Williams Sr. himself started his career as a teenager. He wrote songs as a teenager. He recorded his 1st hit “Move It On Over” when he was just a few years older than us. He penned all of those classic tunes: “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “Kawliga,” “Tear In My Beer,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart” etc. when he was in his mid to late 20s. He also wrote an insane number of songs during that short period. He died before he turned 30. We forget how young Hank was, and how much he accomplished despite his youth and short career. Oh, and those weren’t immature songs, were they?
October 22, 2015 @ 8:32 am
Ok. I was wrong about the father thing.
I think there’s a reason Hank Williams Sr. looked like a zombie.
I think there’s a reason Jamey Johnson looks like a Duck Dynasty dropout.
I think most, with some obvious exceptions, of our greatest songwriters have been over thirty, and/or lived a lot of life that most of us don’t before they reached that point.
I think it’s a matter of emotional maturity and not physical maturity.
October 23, 2015 @ 2:26 pm
Kale-regarding Hank Sr-keep in mind that he grew up during the Depression, and at that tIme, and all the time before the Depression for that matter, kids had to grow up fast. His mother had him out selling peanuts and shining shoes to bring in money, after his father left, when he was something like 10 years old. The “teenager” category is a fairly new one in the scheme of history. So even though Hank Sr was in his 20s, he’d already grown up as far as having had to take on adult responsibilities, and his wasn’t a special case in the rural South, or anywhere at that time. From time immemorial, children of farmers, rural kids, often didn’t get more than a grade school education because they were really needed to help the family survive. Those people grew up fast, married young, raised families young. There weren’t any carefree “teenage” years where they only had to relate to or socialise with their age-peers. So yes, by his 20s Hank Sr, Loretta Lynn (married at 15 or 16, 3 kids by the time she’s 21) had plenty of adult life experience-hard experience-to write about. They weren’t the exceptions to the rule of the classic country artists either.
October 21, 2015 @ 5:30 pm
Sounds like somebody’s getting to big for their britches. And a little pretentious for a 20 year old who probably knows the majority of his knowledge from the Internet.
October 21, 2015 @ 5:41 pm
I’ve played in a band since I was a teenager. I studied music in college. Does that mean I know more than everybody? no it doesn’t. It just means I have a different perspective. There’s a lot of commenters who know more about Country Music than me, and I think it’s no coincidence that most of them are older than me.
And thank you for using “big for their britches.” I haven’t heard that expression in a while.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:23 pm
Well I guess I can appreciate that explanation then
October 21, 2015 @ 9:04 pm
Thank God Patterson Hood wasn’t thinking like that when he hired some 22 year old kid from Muscle Shoals.
October 21, 2015 @ 10:28 am
This isn’t a nursery rhyme, and I wouldn’t label Maddie & Tae ans a “kiddie” act. In fact it’s this perspective which encourages, if not necessitates women to sexualize themselves and their music just so they don’t get labeled as such. That’s the whole arc of Miley Cyrus’ career.
I believe music should be enjoyed by all, and country should be a bastion for family listening in an otherwise screwed up culture. I also enjoy music that is meant for adults only, but there’s a time and place for everything, and the country radio dial is something you should be proud to turn to with your kids in the car.
October 21, 2015 @ 1:51 pm
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding Fuzzy, but I think he’s using the word “adult” to signify content that is otherwise thematically mature, and not in a dirty way. “Mature” as in emotionally mature, adult as in written from that point of view. Not Miley Cyrus twerking on some awards show.
To that end, I agree completely with Fuzzy. I’ve never liked music that was overzealous in its attempts to appeal to adolescents. Hell, I don’t even like angsty music that’s intended to appeal to young adults who sit in their rooms pissed off at everyone and their parents for not “understanding” them (*cough* NIRVANA *cough*), or the kind that’s supposed to make all of the listeners feel like the minority composed of “free spirits” that are above everyone else (Kacey Musgraves).
A co-worker of mine put it brilliantly a few years ago when we were debating Trace Adkins’ single “Just Fishin’.” He said that most people would hear it and be at a loss for why we enjoyed a tune about a man and his daughter getting to know one another and making memories. Why do I feel like most mainstream country music performers and fans these days would be among that crowd?
October 21, 2015 @ 3:28 pm
Thank you Acca. Yes, I was completely referring to thematic/emotional maturity.
I think MOST of us went through adolescence, and the accompanying hormonal imbalances and inability to understand our new emotions, and the confusion that came with trying to adjust to a large world we’d never experienced before. I remember being miserable. Clint remembers making bad decisions, I’m sure Albert has his share of bad memories from that period.
Why would we want to here music about that period of our life? Are we Luke Bryan? who’s never grown up?
Haven’t we left that period of our life, that confusing, miserable period that we all went through called puberty; have we not left it far enough behind?
If Chase Rice fans are any indication, some of us never left.
George Strait and Willie Nelson found wisdom in their age, that wisdom made their music appealing.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:28 pm
George Strait didn’t start writing songs till a couple years ago, and he still doesn’t write that many, so I’d use someone else as a counterpoint to Maddie and Tae’s supposed immaturity.
I’d suggest Jason Isbell, but he wrote Decoration Day and Outfit (both of which are very much songs about growing up) when he was 22, so that doesn’t work either.
October 22, 2015 @ 7:10 am
No problem, and I agree completely with your explanation. People who act like that period was the best time of their lives really perplex me. Not that everyone had it hard, and many people DID have fun I’m sure, but I’d like to think that’s a period most folks would avoid if they could go back to a point in their lives. It also doesn’t help my personal appreciation of mainstream country music that most of it is glossed-up nostalgia ballads about how “wild” everyone was and how they had a great time. Please. Nostalgia is a cheap emotion as it is, we don’t need it made more shallow with a bunch of pandering to teenagers. Perhaps if I had been one of the idiots tailgating and getting drunk every night before school I might feel differently, but as far as I’m concerned mainstream country music currently represents a perspective I don’t enjoy (young adults) with a scene I hate (partying). The fact that most of this crap isn’t country is simply icing on the shit cake.
(By the way, I’m in my 20s as well so I assume we’re on the same page).
October 22, 2015 @ 7:15 am
Also, as an example of wisdom through age, I freaking loved Don Williams’ Reflections album from last year, which is saying something. I’ve never been a big appreciator of Williams as he’s always been a little mellow for my tastes, but he won me over with that one. A simple album of covers, but as a whole work they are marvelous. The simple virtue of experiencing pieces of Don’s life through his vocal performances is what meant the most to me. I’ll probably never know much about the man’s personal life, but he’s LIVED and I can easily hear that. Listening to that album always reminds me of talking with my grandpa.
October 23, 2015 @ 1:09 pm
Forgive me for being repetitive here in my comments, but I just have to say that I will NEVER be a cowboy in the Old West, but I love the album “Red-Headed Stranger”, and I will NEVER be either a sailor, a highway robber, an astronuat (!), or a laborer on the Boulder Dam, but I could totally relate to the universal concepts in that song (and I’m a Christian, in case it’s about reincarnation). Glen Campbell wasn’t a woman, much less a housewife, but he sang a song, written by a man, that I, as a woman and a housewife, totally could relate to. What I’m saying is, there are universal human concepts that transcend age, sex, generation, etc, and some of the best songs manage to express that. I guess it’s natural (at least since a certain era, I’m not sure when everything began to be about youth) that youth only seems to believe that it can relate to its peer group and that only its peer group can relate to it, at least that’s been the case since youth began to have its own disposable income and commerce learned that the “youth” is a desireable and marketable demographic of its own. It’s an artificial group of the modern era.
October 21, 2015 @ 5:47 pm
Leann Rimes and Tanya Tucker were young teenagers.
“Blue” and “Delta Dawn” are/ will always be great.
October 21, 2015 @ 8:55 pm
Dirt is also pandering garbage that was phony in a way that none of the rest of FGL’s stupid songs are.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:54 pm
Does not matter if it was motivated by pandering. It was just far better in quality than any other FGL song.
Focus on the message, not the messenger.
October 21, 2015 @ 10:01 pm
My issue isn’t that it’s pandering. My issue is that it’s garbage.
It’s a terrible checklist song with lots of kitsch, but no lyrical depth. My lasting impression of the song was their utter boredom and insincerity with the trite material.
I would rather listen to any other song in their catalog than that sleepwalk through dishonest crap. Stupid songs like Sun Daze are the music they want to make, and authentic to who they are. They’re aiming to be (very) dumb, fun party songs, and they do a great job of it.
October 21, 2015 @ 10:17 pm
The difference between the “Dirt” checklist and bro-country is that the artifacts listed in “Dirt” symbolize a deep emotional sense of rootedness in one’s community, conveyed by connecting the concept of “dirt” to warm memories. It actually features a coherent theme unlike the bro party songs. The concept is similar to Willie Tea Taylor’s “Life Is Beautiful”, which won SCM Song of the Year in 2011:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv6Lfr-Mf20
October 21, 2015 @ 10:22 pm
They don’t, though! It’s just a sleepwalk through inane cliches about “country livin'” that can’t even be taken as dumb fun on its own terms, unlike much of FGL’s stuff.
Anyone who praises the song is guilty of looking at the messenger rather than the message. No one would give it a second look if it was by anyone other than FGL.
October 22, 2015 @ 7:41 am
I kinda hear ya , Fuzzy . But these ‘kids’ are wise beyond their years when it comes to writing and being aware of not only age-appropriate material of substance but how they want to deliver it while maintaining a RESPECT for country’s traditions . And by that I mean lyrically , musically ,and embracing tried and true country writing craft and using it cleverly. I think country music is probably responsible for the BEST writes of the last century . Their song is always the focus . These young country singers are part of the solution in every respect , in my opinion . They have the conviction , the talent and the sound needed to keep a trad interpretation of country alive .
October 22, 2015 @ 8:42 am
If I were to write a top twenty five or top 100 list of best songs, MOST of them would be Country songs.
I actually though Isbell and Simpson were about five years younger, each, for what it’s worth, until Trigger corrected me.
October 23, 2015 @ 12:51 pm
I just listened to it, just to give it a chance-the instrumentation doesn’t bother me too much, I got over that sound when it was the trend in the 90s, though I don’t love it (except from a Dwight Yoakum), the lyrics are passable enough, but-don’t hate me y’all, but I can’t STAND their voices-something thin and tinny about them. It is acually unpleasant to my ears. Sorry, I did try.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:13 am
I think this song sounds like Brad Paisley could have written it. It reminds me of both “I’m going to miss her” and that tick song.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:29 am
This was actually one of the highlights on the album for me, along with “Sierra”… It may be a little too cute (I’d agree that the Paisley comparison is apt), but it certainly tells more of an actual story than any bro-country “checklist” or let’s-party anthem. 🙂
October 21, 2015 @ 9:16 am
Those are some pretty nice smalljaws they have there… The gamest fish that swims…
October 21, 2015 @ 11:45 am
Steelhead ****
October 21, 2015 @ 11:57 am
What about Steelhead?
October 21, 2015 @ 9:37 am
“Boy In a Country Song” hug Trig? Lol I had to. The best part about this song is that its a true story about some boys they hung out with who came to hang out n flirt with them when Maddie & Tae actually did want to fish because they enjoy it lol.
October 21, 2015 @ 10:25 am
I made the same mistake a couple of weeks back calling a Kacey Musgraves’ song “Dime Store Cowboy.” Not sure what’s wrong with my brain that I can’t get the sexes right lately, but that’s one of the pitfalls of being a one man operation and not being able to afford to pay yourself, let alone pay an editor. I’m not an idiot; it’s just an inevitability when you edit yourself that there’s going to be mistakes. I do the best I can, and have perfected the art of failing with dignity, I hope.
October 21, 2015 @ 11:06 am
Lol I understand, and you own it i’ll give you that lol.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:40 am
This or “Sierra” is what they should have released second instead of “Fly”.
Look, I get the desire not to be singled out as a one-trick pony. It also held on at radio for a long while.
But at what cost? Its bullet, -3309 this morning on Mediabase’s seven-day rolling chart, is among the very worst plunges in chart history. It is easily the worst decline since Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush”, and you’d probably have to go back to Dixie Chicks’ “Travelin’ Soldier” to find another fall that vicious (and that, of course, had to do with the backlash Natalie Maines received for her remarks).
Also, of every song listed on Mediabase’s October 16th national callout report (all genders, all ages, currents only), it had the highest “Heavy Burn” score of 12.1%. Of the 35 current singles featured in the study, it also had the second-highest negative score of 23.2% (only Easton Corbin’s “Yup” fared worse at a whopping 31.9% Negative score) and ranked 32nd in Net Positive scores (only above “Yup”, “White Lightning” and “Live Forever”). Add to that weak sales out of the gate that only went on to middling, and “Fly” just wasn’t the right single to anchor “Start Here” on.
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So, yeah, its rapid descent doesn’t surprise me one bit, honestly. “Shut Up And Fish” suits their personalities much better, and is the most likely track on the album alongside “Sierra” to restore their momentum.
I think it does a very effective job at finding that middle between traditional country and contemporary country preferences. We get some tasty rollicking roadhouse guitar driving the breadth of this, punctuated by sharp-as-an-icepick vocal cadences in the chorus that positively remind me of the saloon stomps I grew up on, honky tonk piano and well-timed pedal steel touches.
Beyond that, I have to say the framing of the song is what impresses me most about this. Yeah, it’s ultimately a novelty-esque anthem, but there is some genuine wit in the lyrics that mustn’t be overlooked all the same. I personally thought the chorus lyric “I was getting madder than a hornet in an old coke can!” was spot-on hilarious and probably one of my favorite one-liners in a mainstream country single this year. It’s effective because once you read around the lyric instead of zeroing in solely on that one, the song comes across as rather relatable. Who hasn’t pushed one’s luck without being self-aware of crossing boundaries at some point? And as saucy as both the lyrics and delivery is, “Shut Up And Fish” also doesn’t sound immature at all to my ears. It wins points on wit, and it also is replete with imagery that make for more momentous, appealing country listens: right down to the play on the “cold shower in the lake” lyric that wraps up the bridge.
Personally, I think “Shut Up And Fish” is brilliant. Easily one of the most enjoyable mainstream country singles of 2015, and I am hoping Maddie & Tae are effectively able (I predict they will) to transcend all the comparisons to The Wreckers they are already receiving in terms of chart trajectory (their lead single “Leave To Pieces” was a #1 hit, while the follow-up “My Oh My” limped to an eventual barely Top Ten peak before “Tennessee” stalled outside of the Top Thirty and that was that).
I’m thinking a Decent to Strong 8 out of 10 for this.
October 21, 2015 @ 11:36 am
Tldr
October 21, 2015 @ 12:22 pm
Why is Easton’s song called “Yup” when he says “Yep?”
October 21, 2015 @ 12:46 pm
I thought it was styled as “Yup” and was mistaken.
Anyway, “Yep”…………it’s failing to connect in a huge way that makes “Live Forever” sound well-liked by comparison! =P
October 21, 2015 @ 9:44 am
Shut Up and Fish and No Place Like You are the only songs I really listen to from their new album. It is a good song for sure though.
October 21, 2015 @ 10:09 am
Apparently they had fans vote on the next single which turned out to be this.
October 21, 2015 @ 10:29 am
It’s a great track, and the biggest compliment I can give is that if you asked 100 people what genre of music it is, most would say “country”. Whew.
ps. Speaking of artists who actually sound country, I saw Jon Pardi play a live show this past weekend and he was *awesome*. Thx for the heads up about him Trig.
October 21, 2015 @ 11:06 am
I really thought Right Here, Right Now would be their next single. They open their shows with it and it seems to fit in well with radio. I love Shut Up and Fish, but thought it would do better next spring/summer. It’s actually brilliantly written with great lyrics and it plays to Maddie’s strengths as a singer.
I know a lot of people say it’s a Brad Paisley-type song and I guess it is, but I see it more as a Dixie Chicks release, kind of like Goodbye Earl.
What makes Start Here such a great album is they could have released almost any song on the record and found success. The only two I don’t think would do well are Smoke (Too much like Thousand Horses song) and Your Side of Town (to me, the only lazily written song on the album).
October 21, 2015 @ 11:51 am
Here’s how I would have released their singles if in charge:
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1) “Girl In A Country Song” (Obviously! You want to emerge on the scene with a bang of a statement! Absolutely agree with this decision, though I would have waited until the duo had prepared most of the recording of their album to release this.)
2) Either “Sierra” or “Shut Up And Fish” (Look, I get why some would argue it would be risky to follow up one cheeky, playful song with another one. But it is absolutely important to anchor an album release off of a track that pushes buttons and is somewhat polarizing. “Sierra” is exactly that kind of track that commands your attention, and while some won”™t like it right off the bat, it isn”™t polarizing to the extent of a “1994” or “Real Life” because most would sense it delivered in good cheer and warmth. Same with “Shut Up And Fish”. I”™m absolutely convinced either track would have done a hell of a lot more to move the needle both at airplay and digitally than “Fly” has, and serve as a more potent single to anchor the album release.)
3) “Waitin”™ On A Plane” (At this point, you obviously want to highlight the more sentimental, emotionally evocative side of the duo. But to take a page out of the Zac Brown Band’s debut era playbook, before taking a leap of faith with “After The Storm Blows Through”, test the waters with a more radio-ready but solid example of it. “Waitin”™ On A Plane” achieves that in spades. This is also easily their safest release thus far, but it still stands out because I think the message will appeal to many Millennials in particular who are longing for their tickets to ride and who may be enduring quarterlife crises. There’s a little more going on in this song than the middle-of-the-road, but tasteful, production suggests)
4) “After The Storm Burns Through” (Much like the Zac Brown Band did with “Highway 20 Ride” off their debut major label album “The Foundation” after playing it safer with their first three singles”¦”¦”¦”¦”¦.NOW is the time to take a leap of faith with an intimate, stripped-down ballad. What do you have to lose this deep in the promotional cycle? Chances are it could very well flop, but you don”™t know until you try.)
5) Either “Shut Up And Fish” or “Sierra” (No matter the fate of “After The Storm Blows Through”, either one of these up-tempos is the perfect song to end the era. It”™s the type of earworm that would either keep the momentum going for them or else revive their momentum should “After The Storm Blows Through” underperform and have its plug pulled prematurely.)
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“Right Here, Right Now” isn’t bad, but there’s nothing that makes it stand out about it much like “Fly”, at least to my ears. It plays it just a tad too Adult Contemporary-leaning. Same thing with “No Place Like You”. And “Your Side Of Town” fell flat to my ears in that it tries too hard to ape “Four The Record”-era Miranda Lambert.
“Downside of Growing Up” is a stellar album closer that is definitely radio friendly enough, but as far as more reflective songs are concerned, I’m insistent that at least “After The Storm Blows Through” gets a fair shake.
October 21, 2015 @ 12:13 pm
Personally I thought this was the weakest song on the album. Not to say it’s bad per say, just not my favorite. It’s cute, but there is better stuff on the album.
October 21, 2015 @ 12:28 pm
I definitely think there’s better songs on the album. I thought this was a great single choice though.
October 21, 2015 @ 12:22 pm
“Shut up and Fish” gets a two guns up in my book. I grew up on Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley and George Strait music and from a sonical standpoint it really brings me back to my childhood. what really stands out for me is how easily and perfectly the lyrics flow together, and I also found the song quite funny. can’t wait to see their performance at the CMAs!
“Comedy is […] what Brad Paisley has leaned on later in his career”. I don’t think that’s right. If you look at Paisley’s career, comedy was heavily present in his early days, but it almost disappeared on his albums American Saturday Night, This is Country Music and Wheelhouse. He tried to build his Moonshine in the Trunk record on it but I think that was more a commercial move than an artistic choice.
October 21, 2015 @ 1:05 pm
While I’d agree “5th Gear” was Paisley’s last standard (I say standard because “Play” was an instrumental-dominant album with its share of humor too) album arranged like a comedic variety show (we haven’t heard any Kung Pao Buckaroo features nor zany instrumentals ever since then)…………..I wouldn’t say he has put comedy to rest altogether between then and “Moonshine In the Trunk”.
I do think what shifted in his choice of humor, though, was deftly mixing it with headier topics. On “American Saturday Night”, he spends time on at least two tracks elaborating on what he touched on in “I’m Still A Guy” in terms of gender roles which are “The Pants” and “You Do The Math”. “Catch All The Fish” was definitely a novelty too.
On “This Is Country Music”, we see moments like these as well. “Workin’ On A Tan” is an obvious one, as is “Be The Lake” (fishing songs sure seem to be a running tradition on Paisley albums, come to think of it).
I’d agree “Wheelhouse” was an uncharacteristically serious and ballad-heavy outlier among his albums (although “Outstanding In Our Field” is a cheeky party track and “Harvey Bodine” is rather sly as well).
October 21, 2015 @ 3:33 pm
Well two of the members (George and Little Jimmy) got recruited to play in a band I’m assuming is called Hank Williams’ Drifting Zombies.
So unless Brad recruits new members I think that act has been laid to rest.
October 21, 2015 @ 3:55 pm
I guess what I’m saying is that “5th Gear” signaled the end of his “variety show album” era, but humor has still played a signature part of his songwriting since then. He’s just applying it in a more didactic form now.
October 21, 2015 @ 4:33 pm
yeah I agree. when I said “it almost disappeared” I mean exactly that there were very few novelty/comedy songs on those records, expecially compared to albums like 5th Gear and Time Well Wasted.
October 21, 2015 @ 12:42 pm
This might make y’all chuckle a bit but I heard this song and thought of Kathy Mattea’s “Walking Away a Winner”.
October 21, 2015 @ 6:52 pm
Very funny song with an excellent sonic style. It just might be light-hearted enough to hit it big in the current country radio environment.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:56 pm
I miss clever,funny songs in country music! With today’s artists all the comedy is unintentional and to me that makes it so much funnier and a little sad at the same time.
October 21, 2015 @ 8:08 pm
Country music used to be able to laugh at itself. It kept it grounded and honest and real.
October 21, 2015 @ 8:14 pm
Yeah I agree now all it can do is constantly apologize for itself.It’s like at some point country music forgot what it was and tried being everything to everyone.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:08 pm
So…when are we getting Smoke, haha?
October 21, 2015 @ 10:56 pm
I think Maddie & Tae are absolutely fantastic. As a teenage girl myself, I have been waiting for an album like this. I love old country- Johnny, Merle, Loretta ect, but sometimes I just need music I can relate to, that is country too.
‘Start Here’ is so fresh and reminds me of the feeling I got when I heard Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless’ for the first time. The album is not without faults but I am very excited to see how their music develops, and how it matures.
‘Shut Up and Fish’ is FUN. It’s not meant to be serious and I think we need more of that.
October 21, 2015 @ 11:01 pm
The cover art for the song is superior to the thumbnail art in the song link. It feels more fresh and organic and more country than the album cover.
October 21, 2015 @ 11:53 pm
Mainstream country has no idea what to do with their album covers these days. Totally clueless.
October 21, 2015 @ 11:08 pm
I still think Aaron Watson covered this topic better in “Fish” but this song is just plain fun. I appreciate how Maddie and Tae can be independent without needing to be all snobbery and third wave feminist about it.
Songs like these are country music.
October 22, 2015 @ 7:48 pm
I saw these girls perform last month. Most of the crowd was older, and the headliner of the evening was Alan Jackson. Literally, I heard old people complaining about how expensive it was to have to pay a whopping $25 to see Alan Jackson and “some no-names” (M&T , C Stapleton, and Caroline Kole). M&T put on a good show, including a cover of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.
October 27, 2015 @ 6:28 am
Price was the same amount when I bought a ticket to see Hal Sparks at the Improv in Atlanta a while back, I thought it was a lot cheaper compared to seeing Bill Engvall a few years ago or even Gary Allan which both ran for 40 bucks. So in the end what’s there to complain?
October 23, 2015 @ 8:39 pm
This was immediately my favourite song off the new album. Didn’t think they would release it as a single though because it doesn’t really fit in with radio.
October 24, 2015 @ 3:47 am
Not sure how much longer these two will be able to do reworked Shania Twain songs and say, ‘We’re just kidding!’