Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Backroad” (A Rant)
WARNING: Heavy Language
Body Like a Backroad? BODY LIKE A BACKROAD?!?
Seriously Sam Hunt, fuck off with this.
To release a song called “Body Like a Backroad” in the year of our Lord 2017, after we suffered through five years of embarrassment as a genre at the hands of the Bro-Country scourge, it goes so far beyond aggressively cliché, it’s just downright grotesque. The level of objectification and misogyny in this song would make the quarter-century dead corpse of Conway Twitty writhe as if it was in an epileptic fit. Even Florida Georgia Line isn’t stupid enough to release a song like this, and they still have to recite the story of the rabbit going down the hole to get their fucking shoes tied every morning.
You’re going to sit in some a board room on Music Row and say, “‘Body Like a Backroad’? It’s genius! Shit, let’s release it as the lead single!” The level of cliché in this song is criminal. Sam Hunt has figured out a way to be more 2013 than the songs of 2013 were. It’s like a parody of itself.
And somehow, inexplicably, this song is even worse than the title infers. Look at some of these lyrics:
“The way she fit in them blue jeans, she don’t need no belt
But I can turn them inside out, I don’t need no help
Got hips like honey, so thick and so sweet…”
Are these the words to a song to be broadcast on what is supposed to be the most family friendly selection on the radio dial, or the off-camera locker room banter caught on a live mic as an Access Hollywood bus trolls a studio parking lot looking for ass?
And to think, Sam Hunt’s upcoming record has been prefaced with all this hot air about how he’s working on this deep material, and this is a really personal project tied to big changes in his life and all this bullshit. Trust me, whenever you hear a mainstream artist say they’re working on the deepest material of their career, that’s when you know you’re being prepped for the release of the most vapid, aggressively shallow songs of their entire lifetimes.
I don’t give a shit if the rest of Sam Hunt’s new album is Shakespearean, we don’t let murderers off just because they donated some canned goods to the red cross. They’re known, as they should be in this case, for the worst of their deeds. And “Body Like a Backroad,” despite the Herculean efforts of Sam Hunt’s back catalog of audio abominations, somehow, inexplicably, sets a new low for this country music interloping pop star who would fuck off the entire 90 year history of country music if it meant getting a hit in a format where he not only doesn’t belong, but defines the absolute antithesis of—the perfect antonym to—and only continues to hang around because he knows he would get his ass handed to him if he tried his hand in the pop format with this vomitous dreck.
I want to see all you Sam Hunt apologists—you know who you are; the ones that work at entertainment outlets that only know country music from the outside looking in and say about Sam Hunt, “Gee I didn’t know I liked country music until I heard him,”—come and defend this abortion. It’s been flabbergasting heretofore to see critics give Sam Hunt a pass simply because he’s a guilty pleasure for them, and turn songs about getting a hand job in the back of a downtown taxi into some important, forthright expression of our time that deftly blends modern themes with small town sensibilities. Sam Hunt is Mad Lib lyrics overlaying shitty electronic beats thrown together in 30 minutes. And his haircuts suck.
And don’t give me any lines about how country music must evolve. If this monstrosity was broadcast simultaneously to all the peoples of the earth, we would immediately devolve back into trilobites due to the level of horrific banality this song makes one endure. I shit you not, I would rather relive all the historic, high-profile death and political acrimony of 2016 all over again to be spared spending another second in audience with this Sam Hunt song.
February 1, 2017 @ 11:12 am
Body Like a Backroad, huh? Is she bumpy? Does she flood easily when it gets wet? Will I run into a creepy wooded area if I go far enough down her body?
February 3, 2017 @ 8:16 pm
Well done wallace. Well done. Yours is the only comment I’ve read on this thread and it’s the only one I’ll need to read. Way to set the pace.
September 22, 2017 @ 12:16 pm
I like the song. Body like a back road, she has smooth curves. ..doin 15 in a 30, I ain’t in no hurry…Goin slow just as fast as I can….
I like it. From start to finish. My opinion .
February 1, 2017 @ 11:13 am
I’ve heard similar similes before, but usually it’s not meant as a compliment. Saying that somebody looks like a mile of dirt road is to say that person looks old, wrinkly, and nasty. Hunt must be completely disconnected from his music.
February 1, 2017 @ 11:25 am
I laughed…and I agree. Unfortunately, I also predict it will be a huge hit, and go #1 at radio. It’s already #1 on the all genre itunes. (so basically today I hate the American music customer).
February 1, 2017 @ 11:28 am
Welcome to the new country. Yet Nashville had a fit because Tom Petty said he said he didn’t know if he was listening to a country station or pop station.
February 1, 2017 @ 11:39 am
So, rutted and covered with gravel and roadkill? Hot.
When I first heard Sam Hunt on “Leave the Night On,” I thought “this isn’t country, but it has a decent 80s pop chorus.” And everything he’s released since then has been increasingly unlistenable, to the point I can’t even stand Leave the Night On anymore, he’s just ear cancer.
February 1, 2017 @ 11:40 am
Sigh. I’ve been with you and spreading your gospel for four years Triggerman. I think I’m out. You just can’t help yourself, but to keep inserting your politics into your articles. I really like your articles too, but I’m done putting up with the little jabs from journalists that shouldn’t even be touching politics.
February 1, 2017 @ 12:09 pm
I’m genuinely curious what you thought was the political jab in this article. I’m on board the Trump Train and I am admittedly way too sensitive to what you’re talking about, but I don’t see it in this article.
February 1, 2017 @ 12:44 pm
Stop being a pussy or I might grab you.
February 1, 2017 @ 12:48 pm
The only political reference in this entire article is to the “political acrimony” of 2016, which is not a criticism of any party, candidate, or ideology in particular. As you may have noticed, there was indeed a lot political acrimony in 2016.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:22 pm
I’m sure he’s talking about the Access Hollywood bus. I typically find myself in the center politically, but I love how the right calls the left snowflakes, but a small insignificant comment in an article can push them over not wanting to come back to a website. Let him go to his safe space where no one offends him. The hypocrisy is nuts (I agree it’s on both sides but I see stuff like this all the time).
February 1, 2017 @ 7:45 pm
Fuck politics
February 2, 2017 @ 7:52 am
Agree. I’m thankful that my parents never discussed politics growing up because it caused me to do my own research and pick where I want to be when I was at an age where I could actually understand what’s going on. It really opens your eyes to the extreme bias and hypocrisy across the political spectrum. We would be a lot better off without political parties or with a larger number of mainstream political parties, but, having 2 mainstream parties does nothing but divide the country. It gives adults a reason to whine and bicker, act like children, and close your mind to differing viewpoints because you end up thinking your own viewpoints are superior…Or as you stated more succinctly…fuck politics!
February 2, 2017 @ 7:33 pm
Actually you’re just adding to the “political acrimony” yourself, as stated in the article. You divide everyone up into large groups. How about you take an individual approach. The healing effort needs to take part from everybody, that includes the left and right. Neither of you are being helpful or intelligent.
February 2, 2017 @ 9:14 pm
I’m putting large groups into large groups and saying most individuals are good people if they can keep from blindly defending their party and criticizing others. I don’t know how commenting on political acrimony is adding to it but I guess that’s my unintelligence. Thank you for educating me.
February 1, 2017 @ 11:43 am
“Body like a backroad”, so curves in odd places, old and unmaintained?
February 1, 2017 @ 12:00 pm
Dude’s clearly never seen a real backroad. From the title of this thing the 1st thing I thought is the bitch must look worn the fuck out after every guy in town’s had a drunken ride on her ass.
February 1, 2017 @ 12:03 pm
“Are these the words to a song to be broadcast on what is supposed to be the most family friendly selection on the radio dial” this speaks volumes about the country music of today. The days of artists like Phil Vassar and such are long gone. I miss the days when you could listen to the radio and hear something encouraging and meaningful instead of the smut and borderline porn groove that adulterates the airwaves today. it’s sad really how far gone a genre became in 9 years. Even in 2008 there was still real country music on the radio.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:12 pm
Pro tip: buy an iPod (or whatever). Problem solved.
February 2, 2017 @ 6:01 am
Or the ever applicable ‘Shoot at it until it dies’.
#LoveThatMeme
February 2, 2017 @ 10:33 am
.223’s work well
February 1, 2017 @ 10:04 pm
Just to play devil’s advocate, since you randomly brought up Phil Vassar as the measure of family-friendly radio fun, I always thought his “I’ll Take That As A Yes”, although I liked it, was rather risque and I would’ve been turning the station if that came on while little kids were around.
Oh, well…
Different strokes – so to speak….
That being said, yeah, Sam Hunt needs to go on somewhere. Please.
February 2, 2017 @ 10:14 am
I think he meant stuff like “Carlene”, “Just Another Day in Paradise”, “American Child” and “Last Day of My Life”, among others. He was always poppy/adult contemporary, but his material benefitted from being mostly well- or decently-written and his delivery always gave the impression of sincerity. Even “I’ll Take That As a Yes” was more playful than smutty (and surely we’re not going to hold that over its head given that it was born in a world that had already suffered through Garth Brooks’ “That Summer”?), and even then it didn’t even break the top 15, which might be because of what you’re referencing. It was 2004, after all.
February 2, 2017 @ 8:16 pm
Whoa! You’re blaming “That Summer”? Songs like that have been in country music for years. “That Summer” is just a copy cat of T G Sheppard “War Is Hell (On The Home Front too).
February 3, 2017 @ 2:42 pm
I’m not saying such songs never existed, but that one was on a slightly higher level from what I can tell, especially for a big hit in the ’90s from country music’s biggest star (that status likely being one of the reasons he got away with it unscathed). I know I’m in the minority, but “That Summer” is one of those “classics” that never ceases to amaze in terms of how little it seems to deserve the distinction, and how creepy the actual lyrics can come across as. A bunch of my friends love it, but they laugh at it like a dirty joke. To me it’s not funny, it’s just dull, weird and overplayed (“true to life” or not). However one feels about it, “That Summer” is more smutty than “I’ll Take That As a Yes” and was also a bigger hit. But it’s less smutty than Sam Hunt’s new dirge, not to mention being actual country, so there’s that.
February 2, 2017 @ 10:18 am
If you’re interested, Phil Vassar released a new album in December: American Soul. I haven’t listened to my copy yet but it seems a bit bro-influenced if if samples are to be believed. He’s still not terribly country, either, but his trademark piano appears to be used quite a bit, which is always a plus.
February 1, 2017 @ 12:07 pm
Definitely a country song – if you listen closely in the second verse there’s a country guitar riff in between the lyrics.
But, seriously… don’t get me wrong, this is bad. But nothing will ever top how bad “Take Your Time” was.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:47 pm
Not even Drinkin’ Too Much?
October 27, 2017 @ 3:23 pm
Take your time was freaking amazing! So is Body Like a Back Road and most of Sam Hunts songs.
February 1, 2017 @ 12:29 pm
I know when you are frustrated/angry/disgusted/etc by the warning:language label!
Seriously, this guy (and others like him) must be stopped before it’s too late and the human race ceases to exist. But,how?
Is it possible to take away guns, leaving him lower than 0/10??
February 1, 2017 @ 12:43 pm
Thanks a lot for your hilarious article, you make my day ! I wouln’t add a coat on Sam Hunt,no need, but I’d like to congrat your writing skills, thanks for this moment !
February 1, 2017 @ 12:53 pm
My prayer is that this disappears the way ‘whisper’ did…
February 1, 2017 @ 1:10 pm
Language warning:
Trig I love ya like a brother but these lyrics are like Sunday school for Miss Dotty’s fourth graders compared to anything by Wheeler Walker Jr.
I even fail to see how they’re worse than, I don’t know, picking at random, “Woman Love” by Gene Vincent. Or, for you youngsters, “Your Body Is a Wonderland” by suburbanite John Mayer.
Where the fuck am I? If you take the back roads people you probably know them like the back of your hand. Therefore, “body like a back road,” that is, you know it intimately. We need to *explain* this?
If you drink your country music straight, you aren’t bothered by trite figures of speech — you’re bothered by Sam Hunt’s access to Mega Marketing, which fire-hoses his idiotic music through our common air.
If you’re listening to a rich, beautiful woman on the sidewalk, Sam Hunt’s music is the woman’s dog trying to piss on your leg.
February 1, 2017 @ 3:36 pm
Agree, on the omg the language and country radio is supposed to be family friendly. A) if I wanted to listen to stuff that was “safe” for 5 year olds, I’d put on children’s music. B) 5 year olds don’t actually know what those words mean, so the only ones getting offended are the parents. By the time they’re old enough to actually understand the meaning, they’ll have seen it in a movie anyways (and btw the same is true of curse-words, trust me, your kid has heard all of them from other kids already).
February 1, 2017 @ 6:12 pm
Maybe you’re right about the lyrics versus Wheeler’s music. But I think you nailed it, we, the traditional country music fans, are a bit pissed off at the fact Sam Hunt’s marketing access can shove this crap on us. Honestly I can’t say I hate Hunt, I just really hate his music. I really don’t see anything wrong with the lyrics, if it were something along the lines of Redneck Shit or DAC’s dirty albums that will never be shoved into our speakers through the magic of radio. But as some people have stated, kids will hear worse from other kids, and sooner or later they all figure out what the lyrics mean. That doesn’t mean that it’s ok to play it anyhow. Give the kiddos some quaility stuff to grow up on so they appreciate good music.
February 1, 2017 @ 6:26 pm
Wheeler Walker Jr. is a ridiculous, over-the-top comedy routine with a Parental Advisory sticker on the front. Songs like Sam Hunt’s are being broadcast to the masses over airwaves we own as United States citizens. Apples and bowling balls. If they release a Wheeler Walker Jr. to country radio, which would never happen because it would be illegal, then I would put up a protest against that as well.
I wasn’t “offended” by the lyrics of the Sam Hunt song personally. I’m offended they call it country, while I identify that the lyrics are demeaning and objectifying towards women.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:14 pm
I wonder when someone is going to start calling out Shane McAnnally for some of these songs. I remember Dallas Davidson getting running down daily for his part in co-writing much of the Bro-County hits.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:27 pm
Complicated. Maybe Trig could get into writing about co-written songs, which looks like the rule rather than the exception. A lot of the hits are committee works, like sitcoms.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:41 pm
Just an observation. He seems to get praise for working with Kacey Musgraves and Brandy Clark but is never criticized or is given a free pass when it comes to Sam Hunt.
February 1, 2017 @ 2:14 pm
Just spitballing, but maybe McAnnally serves Kacey the Date prime steak and gives the leftover gristle-y bits to Sam the Dog.
February 1, 2017 @ 6:28 pm
I’ve been highly critical of Shane McAnnally over the years, and specifically for his work with Sam Hunt and Old Dominion. Shane did not write this song. He gets a songwriting credit because he’s a producer on the track, and the track was basically built off a Macbook instead of humans in a studio, so it’s customary to give producers credit in these scenarios.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:56 pm
If my memory serves, Trigger has talked about the “songwriting by committee” problem on multiple occasions, scattered across several different reviews. As for Shane McAnally, I completely agree with Hayes. I’ve come to expect his name in the credits for whatever the latest abomination happens to be.
February 1, 2017 @ 4:27 pm
Shane knows better than this type of song but Dallas is dreadful. Dallas Davidson is a racist drunk who puts out the lowest quality songs.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:40 pm
This is all Trump’s fault.
February 1, 2017 @ 1:43 pm
A lyric like this says more about the listener who likes it than it does about the nursery-rhymers who are taking advantage of that fact .
February 1, 2017 @ 1:49 pm
I recon it’s time for negative scores for this shit.
February 1, 2017 @ 5:57 pm
Indeed. Like “negative guns,” or maybe a “butter” (Economics joke) or “flowers” score 😀
February 1, 2017 @ 2:08 pm
I’m pretty sure FGL are loop, swoop, and pull kind of guys. Trying to remember such an elaborate story about a rabbit running around a tree and finding its hole is way too complex for their mental capacity. Plus it’s on par with their rhyming capabilities.
February 2, 2017 @ 7:34 am
Oh that’s good. Thanks for the laugh
February 1, 2017 @ 2:10 pm
Sam Hunt fan here(Not sure how much longer if he keeps this shit up) Trig, I agree with your Sam review for once..this is awful and so clichéd its painful to listen to. It took him this long to jump on the bro country train. I’m very disappointed
February 1, 2017 @ 6:35 pm
“Body Like a Backroad” is not Sam Hunt’s thing. His thing is doing R&B, hip-hop style songs with a little bit of country lyricism mixed in there. It’s not my thing, but I understand why it has appealed to some people, and been successful in country. It’s hip-sounding, and the industry and fans have gobbled it up. But with this song, it’s almost as if Sam Hunt doesn;t even know what his own appeal is. Before he was on the cutting edge, now he’s falling back in the pack. Even Florida Georgia Line is trying to move on from this kind of stuff because they see there’s no future in it.
This song will probably be a hit, but it makes Sam Hunt look like a trend chaser instead of a trend setter, and the trend he’s chasing was worn out two years ago. It may win him a short-term victory, but how many people are going to take him seriously when this album of “serious” songs come out? I just don’t get it.
February 2, 2017 @ 2:24 pm
we don’t let murderers off just because they donated some canned goods to the red cross
that said, it’s a catchy song, he’s a good looking dude, that’s how pop stars are made. the bigger question is if/when he does a T-Swift cross-over, or has country radio crossed-over the other direction and he is right where he needs to be.
not sure why you need to worry about this at time when Sturgill Simpson is up for a grammy and Cody Jinks is on Conan. Country music has already been saved.
February 2, 2017 @ 2:26 pm
that murderer line made me spit take — too funny (somehow that got cut out via formatting)
February 1, 2017 @ 2:12 pm
This song is the equivalent of sticking a country music lover’s (CML’s) head in the toilet and hitting flush. I mean, at what point do CML’s realize that they’re not being “redefined” — they’re being DRIVEN AWAY. Deliberately. On purpose -like. CML’s are like armadillos on the highway, and the Sam Hunts of the world are the 18 wheelers that simply crush them as they pass — with spit on them from the window, for bonus. They don’t WANT you as a buyer. You’re in the way of Industrially Produced Monogenre Supremacy. For all you in Rio Linda, a little short-hand translation: F*** YOU, GO AWAY.
That is what this song means.
February 1, 2017 @ 3:04 pm
That is what every Sam Hunt song means. The very existence of Sam Hunt in the genre is a “F*** You” to country music fans. As much as I dislike FGL, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, and the other idiots of commercial country, they are at least identifiably country. Sure, most of their music is stupid and insulting to any fan of genuine country music, but it is at least a form of country music — a bad form, but a form nonetheless. Sam Hunt is different. He is manifestly not country in any sense whatsoever. In fact, he is expressly urban in his style and approach. Chris Lane is the same. If Sam Hunt is legitimized (e.g., if the CMA and ACM start to give him awards), then country as a mainstream format is finished.
February 1, 2017 @ 4:02 pm
Sam Hunt’s music is catered to highschool and college aged girls. And unfortunately, they love this shit
February 1, 2017 @ 5:04 pm
at this point, they’re like strange creatures in a zoo to me, “hey nineteen”
if true, I feel bad for their generation — when they’re old, what songs of their own will comfort them?
they are alone
May 1, 2018 @ 2:01 pm
What? This makes no sense. So you mean to tell me we don’t have music that will comfort us simply because of a few song choices?
My playlist ranges from Chopin’s impromptu pieces to today’s music. I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine with my violin even if I do choose to listen to such music.
I don’t get the holier-than-thou attitude.
By all means, I’m not a fan of this song, but it’s hella catchy.
February 1, 2017 @ 7:28 pm
You think? That’s all of Nashville bro. And they are making a fortune doing it. The bottom line is people can bitch about it all they want but until It stops selling nothings going to change.
February 1, 2017 @ 4:20 pm
Might be unfair for me to judge this song without listening to it, reading the lyrics, or even reading Trigger’s review but…
as much as I love backroads I’ve never wanted to make sweet love to one.
I assume that this song has a sexual element. Could be wrong. Don’t think I am though.
February 1, 2017 @ 4:24 pm
This song is AWFUL! Sam has sung a few songs when going acoustic that are decent but they are still NEVER country. He is from Alabama but that doesn’t mean you are country. He needs to make the jump like Taylor did. I get country wants the $ this guy brings to the genre but it is seriously a joke. Sam Hunt is in NO WAY a country artist!
February 1, 2017 @ 4:31 pm
I wonder if that’s the same back road where Alan Jackson learned to drive?
February 1, 2017 @ 4:54 pm
The one with trash on each side?
February 1, 2017 @ 5:19 pm
That be the one. Question is: If there’s trash on each side…who’s the other dude?
February 2, 2017 @ 10:29 am
I could guess Brian Kelly of FLG…but then that opens the question of if the individual with long luscious hair getting the business is actually a woman or Tyler Hubbard…I could see the 2 getting mistaken for one another.
February 1, 2017 @ 5:10 pm
No thank you I am not wasting my time try to listen to this dumpster fire of the song..
February 1, 2017 @ 5:23 pm
Trigger, could you be a little more explicit on your feelings about this song?
February 1, 2017 @ 5:53 pm
I get the feeling he doesn’t like it very much!!
February 1, 2017 @ 5:37 pm
Hey Trigger,
Remember me? Is this going to be on your “Worst Songs of 2017” list?
February 1, 2017 @ 6:18 pm
There have been a lot of Steve’s on this thing in 10 years.
I would be surprised if it doesn’t make the Worst of 2017 list.
February 1, 2017 @ 5:50 pm
I hate that I love this.
February 1, 2017 @ 8:37 pm
I hate that I love ice cream , donuts and big macs cuz I know there’s absolutely nothing nutritious in that excuse for food and absolutely no good reason for subjecting myself to it when there are so many healthier , tastier and SMARTER options .
There’s hope for all of us AF . Take the time to explore the alternatives that radio WON’T tell you about .
February 1, 2017 @ 6:34 pm
Yeah, f*** this guy in the neck.
February 2, 2017 @ 7:18 am
Yea! Right in the back woods hollow!
February 1, 2017 @ 7:24 pm
“Now me and her go way back like Cadillac seats”
Simply amazing. You guys are wasting your time fighting the machine. You just got to laugh at this shit. It’s sort of like Lady Gaga’s political views, I really couldn’t give a fuck
February 2, 2017 @ 5:10 pm
I’m laughing, but it’s sad, man. Fifty years from now, young people (who aren’t born yet) are going to cover these mono genre pop tunes for old folks in nursing homes?
By then, I’ll be glad I’m dead.
February 1, 2017 @ 7:42 pm
A potentially good title and concept wrecked like a car on a poorly maintained back road.
February 1, 2017 @ 8:12 pm
I like Sam Hunt as just a music fan because I enjoy his music sonically. I love Chris Stapleton a lot more but I still enjoy Sam Hunt
February 2, 2017 @ 8:05 am
Well…admitting you have a problem is the first step. Very brave. Keep reading SCM, that’s step 2. Eventually you will need to replace the degenerate music though with something better. Fortunately this site has good options for you. I recommend Dale Watson!
February 5, 2017 @ 2:47 pm
Smh. I’ve followed SCM for awhile now. Doesn’t mean I can’t like Sam Hunt. In fact, I didn’t listen to Sam Hunt for awhile because I expected to hate him. But when I listened to him I enjoyed it. Is he country? No, but the man knows how to craft a song
February 1, 2017 @ 8:13 pm
If there’s a silver lining to the black cloud that has become mainstream ” country ” music , it may just be that the Lady Antebellums , the Band Perrys , the Florida Georgia’s , the Luke Bryans and the Sam Hunts who’ve infested the genre with their vapid , generic , directionless trend-chasing offerings have inadvertently brought about a VERY powerful and somewhat unexpected cure for their blight in the likes of the Brandy Clarks, the Chris Stapletons , the Isbells , the Cody Jiinxs , the Musgraves and the countless other inspired and inspiring , focused and passionate ARTISTS whose roots and tradition-driven work is even more appreciated and valued BECAUSE of these lowest-common-denominator mainstream alternative wannabes .
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction .
February 1, 2017 @ 8:55 pm
Ahhhh sort of like a little album titled ‘Nevermind’ released in 1991? Think that movement might of influenced Sturgill to cover Nirvana today? You don’t say ….
Me thinks your dead on and MMSICM might turn out to be this era’s Nevermind
February 2, 2017 @ 7:28 am
Wuh?
Meta Modern is a good album, but Nevermind was a big-ass – and immediate – hand in the face of that frilly shit, that basically killed it overnight. No one was saying, three years down the road, “I think this album might make some big changes around here fellas!” Hell no. That shit was NOW.
February 2, 2017 @ 8:54 am
Really? I thought Sturgill sold as many albums as Nirvana. Come on bro.
Summary of my point: Not comparing album sales. Sturgill was influenced by Nirvana and what they did in the music industry at that time. No matter how big or small, in his own way Sturgill broke off from his first album and blazed a new path in the genre (yes MetaModern was totally different than anything in country before). And like the guys music or not, just look at the comments from those that have already followed his influence in just a few years (Chris Stapleton for one). Which makes it all the more cool to me he covered Nirvana in this day and time. I think it was obvious the statement he was trying to make. I do think Meta could be the album that when we look back influenced a large part of this current grass roots movement.
February 1, 2017 @ 8:25 pm
Been a while since I commented. This, however, deserves a comment. First and foremost I would like to apologize to Luke Bryan. I said on this website a few years back that you had produced the worst single of all time with “kick the dust up”. You sir have now produced the second worst single of all time…this has now taken its place. What the hell is this? How does this make it on radio – of any kind? Who thought this would make a great single? Song? Title? I can’t stand to hear this d-bag talk and then all he does is torment me by talking on his singles. Every f’n one of them. He talks himself into singing and this a thing. I hope this thing just goes away.
February 1, 2017 @ 9:27 pm
This is a bigger hit than cruise, enjoy hearing it all year haters HAHA.
February 1, 2017 @ 10:12 pm
“sniff” This song will be a “cough” #1 “cough” hit.
February 1, 2017 @ 11:37 pm
Stupid pop music. Had it have been released about five years ago, it might have been a top 20 hit on pop radio. I can imagine some stupid fake country band like Big & Rich or The Band Perry covering back then. Heck, Luke Bryan might even cover it in one of his shows now as a way to support a midlife crisis.
February 2, 2017 @ 12:29 am
Great song. Fuck you triggy poo.
February 2, 2017 @ 6:07 am
There’s a reason feminists march against Washington rather than Nashville. At least they stand a faint hope of changing Washington.
February 2, 2017 @ 9:50 am
The best line: “and his haircuts suck.” LOL!!!
February 2, 2017 @ 9:54 am
I wasn’t going to listen to this at first. But then I just had to see how bad it was. Wow. I’m not sure which is more shocking – the complete banality of the song or the mainstream country outlets tripping over themselves to proclaim how awesome and breathtaking it is. Like this from Taste of Country:
“The song has swagger but doesn’t have the heavy production so many tracks on his Montevallo album had. While still pop-friendly ‘Body Like a Back Road’ is more organic, with the guitar cadence and steady drum beat mimicking the sound of four wheels on the asphalt. It’s his most relaxed single — a very lighthearted comeback after a dramatic start to his career.”
What sort of “swagger” are we talking about? Am I deaf because I hear nothing “organic” about this thing. This song brings to mind the famous words of Col. Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now” – “The horror…..the horror….”
February 2, 2017 @ 9:56 am
“I don’t give a shit if the rest of Sam Hunt’s new album is Shakespearean, we don’t let murderers off just because they donated some canned goods to the red cross.”
Easily my favorite line you’ve written thus far in 2017, Trig. 🙂
February 2, 2017 @ 10:12 am
Holy shit, this song really sucks. I already brought this point up over at Country Perspective, but as I listened to this abomination out of pure curiosity, I had a thought. If someone were to create a ” 50 worst country singles ever list” starting from about 1990 and going until 2017, I sincerely wonder how many songs would be from the time range of 2013-2017? Probably most of them. Would the songs that we thought were god-awful five to ten years ago (Honky Tonk Badonkadonk, Achy Breaky Heart, shitty Rascal Flatts songs, shitty Toby Keith songs, She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy, etc.) still be considered among the worst of the worst? Just wondering.
February 2, 2017 @ 10:46 am
If that “worst song list ” was created Amanda , I wonder how many of the top five would belong to Hunt ?
Secondly , I think most of the the other songs you mentioned would definitely be considered ‘ worst of the worst’ …easily top 10s on that worst list . C’mon ….Achy Breaky Heart surely gets the number one spot …no ? That may have been the moment the country music world shifted towards the ” Hey ….these suckers will listen to and buy pretty much ANYTHING we force radio to play ” ploy that dominates sales strategies and the non-songs we’re subjected to today .
Country Music commercial radio believes that to survive they must chase trends even with all of the evidence to the contrary provided by successful artists of integrity who do not cow-tow to those trends and who employ an honest artistic approach to creating . I believe that if we really care about saving country music we have to be even MORE vigilant than ever when it comes to ensuring that a younger listener isn’t duped into believing that because its on the radio ‘ it must be good ‘ . We have to be ready and willing to call a turd a turd , yes , but more importantly to champion music with integrity , a sense of tradition and substance . Without the support of serious and caring listeners we’d most surely live in a world of music ‘built’ for 12 year olds and designed to sell Star Wars figures and video games if radio had its way.
February 2, 2017 @ 11:53 am
I sat through about 15 seconds of the Spotify sample before I went and cued up William Clark Green on the iPod. I’m all for giving songs an honest listen, but so far, 15 seconds of Sam Hunt oughta be all the honest listen anyone should need to figure out the dude is a wretched, pulsating ball of SUCK AND FAIL.
(WCG’s new live album smokes, though.)
February 2, 2017 @ 12:26 pm
Sam Hunt is to mainstream country/”country” music what Donald Trump is to the United States: and both need to be called out vociferously.
The worst lyric to me is actually that “every inch a mile” line. On paper, it doesn’t seem that inflammatory………………..until you read around the lyric and you’re left concluding it is nothing but a lame, calculated euphemism for the size of (fill in the blank). And it gets worse still insinuating that penis size matters more than anything when wooing others……………….right in the middle of a song being marketed to a format that has traditionally been family-friendly! =X
Yeah, this is atrocious. This rivals “Redneck Crazy” as a new nadir for the format. While I’d still be inclined to think “Redneck Crazy” is slightly worse with the attempt to normalize psychotic, jealous behavior………………..”Body Like A Back Road” nonetheless is all but certainly second ahead of other unprecedented dumpster fires like “Fix” and “Vacation”.
Zero out of ten!!!
February 2, 2017 @ 4:33 pm
“Sam Hunt is to mainstream country/”country” music what Donald Trump is to the United States: and both need to be called out vociferously.”
LOL and Hillary’s husband is what? Hillary is what? Obama is what? Bernie Sanders is what?
The dimocrats are all such saints they’ve never said anything untoward in their sanctimonious lives…LOL
Is is is? Bibles and guns? Deplorables?
Trump has nothing to do with what someone thinks about music and neither do the idiots I mentioned from the other side of an aisle that doesn’t exist inside the beltway and the sooner ALL voters wake up and understand the difference between Republicans and Democrats is rhetorical only, the better off we’ll all be and the less inclined one would be to get all butt-hurt over some silly comment and not say something about an admitted adulterer, a known liar and a golf playing clown who didn’t come through on his many promises because like ALL career politicians he does/did what he’s told to do by those who paid and still pay to play.
And no I’m not a Republican nor will I be insulted by corporate or political America(ns) and who have NO clue about that which they speak….. think Mark Twain.
February 2, 2017 @ 4:53 pm
I’m disenchanted with both party establishments, but that is besides the point.
I brought up Sam Hunt and Donald Trump side-by-side because I consider them analogous in how they’re both con artists who play up and sell populist sensibilities. I suppose I could have selected from a list of hundreds to fit that description, but he’s simply the foremost name that pops in my head and I make no apologies for that as one of many intent on rejecting Bannon’s re-imagining of our country.
February 2, 2017 @ 5:14 pm
Sigh, a decent Sam Hunt bashing thread overtaken with the typical one side vs another political discussion. Can’t escape it anywhere nowadays…
As for the song — it’s not good. It’s also not country at all. Why Taste of Country is drooling over it is an oddity. I took a moment to scan the author (Billy Dukes) past articles and he’s quite easy with the reviews. Nothing a big star does that can bother him it seems. Some perspective, here’s his quote on the new BORING and instantly forgettable Lady A song “This actually makes the third straight time Lady A has stretched the perception of who they are while introducing a new project”. Yeah, thats not whats happening with Lady A and your Sam Hunt takes are just as bad.
February 3, 2017 @ 1:51 am
(sigh)….. If this were released on pop radio or r & b radio, I’d get more out of it. I like to think I don’t have any standards when it comes to music, but when something is being solicited as something it isn’t, it clouds my judgement. I’m trying to find something positive in this song but seeing as it’s going to be all over country radio when it shouldn’t be (along with every other song Sam Hunt has released on country radio), I’m just going to make sure I have a few stations on stand by when this combination burnt mayonnaise and melted golf balls of a song comes on.
February 3, 2017 @ 6:54 am
For Christ sake when will the “country music must evolve” crowd finally admit that their evolution has generated an entire new species? That’s usually the definition and outcome of evolution. Sometimes I wish I could work at a radio station just so I could slip in some sturgill, jinx, Pitney, etc to counter this to open people’s eyes, even if it cost me to lose my job there.
February 3, 2017 @ 2:29 pm
Had to explain to my boss why i was in tears (of laughter). “Even Florida Georgia Line isn’t stupid enough to release a song like this, and they still have to recite the story of the rabbit going down the hole to get their fucking shoes tied every morning” THANKYOU.
February 4, 2017 @ 10:39 am
I am convinced that Sam Hunt stalks my posts n this site. Because every time I say there is no possible way I can hate this man any more than I do, he sees my quote and says “Challenge accepted. Hold my wine cooler.”
February 4, 2017 @ 10:57 am
Shut the Fuck Up, Trigger!
His new single is the best song he ever released, you faggot
February 4, 2017 @ 5:05 pm
Obvious Troll is obvious!!!!
February 5, 2017 @ 3:16 pm
I’m not a damn troll and it’s true “Body Like a Back Road” is his best song yet.
June 29, 2017 @ 12:33 pm
Shut up. Just shut up.
February 4, 2017 @ 11:14 am
Hey Sam, please change your name to Mike.
February 4, 2017 @ 11:19 am
His farther or momma named him Sam, you idiot
February 4, 2017 @ 1:52 pm
Thanks Captain Obvious. Appears my juvenile attempt at crude humor flew right over your head.
February 9, 2017 @ 9:32 pm
Body like a Backroad, Face like a Parking Lot….
February 13, 2017 @ 5:18 pm
Sam Hunt needs to get a grip because not just adults listen to these stations but kids do too and for them to have to hear a song about sex and ass is ridiculous. No rightfulhuman being wants their child to be listning to a song such as this one. It is a disgrace to country music and shouldn’t be allowed to be played. Fix it Sam Hunt, Fix it. Stop thinking about yourself and grabbing your wife’s pussy and think about the people listning to you. I also feel that people listning to country stations listen to them for country music and not for this pop shit.
April 1, 2017 @ 12:00 am
This song is such crap and so misogynistic. Yet, Sam Hunt claims this: “Respect for women was a very important part of my upbringing… The women in my life demanded that from me.” I hope we can get rid of this bro-country trend and Make Country Music Great Again!
June 13, 2017 @ 6:26 pm
Learn that poem..
Learn that poem…
August 16, 2017 @ 9:50 am
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE STOP PLAYING “BODY LIKE A BACK ROAD???????” It’s topped the charts for TWENTY-SEVEN FREAKIN’ WEEKS,AND HAS THE DUMBEST LYRICS I’VE EVER SEEN.
(thankfully,I haven’t actually heard the “song,” but if it sounds one-tenth as dumb as its lyrics,it’s horrific.) It makes me long for the good old days of “Bubba Shot The Jukebox,” which I’m sure didn’t reach Number One for even one week.(Guess Mark Chestnutt wasn’t enough of a handsome cowboy to get “Bubba Shot The Jukebox” to the top.Please,Bubba,if you’re in a bar and “Body Like A Back Road” comes on,PLEASE BLAST THAT JUKEBOX TO SMITHEREENS AND SAY,”That’s for Mark Chesnutt!!!!!
August 17, 2017 @ 11:10 am
????????????this article is so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh. Thanks for that.
August 22, 2017 @ 7:46 am
Guess what,folks?”Body Like A Back Road” is the Number One Country song for the TWENTY-EIGHTH STRAIGHT WEEK!!!!!!!Could we get 84-year-old Willie Nelson and/or 83-year-old Charlie Pride to beat up Sam Hunt (as well as the DJs and PDs) for inflicting this crap on people FOR NEARLY SEVEN MONTHS????????
August 29, 2017 @ 6:22 am
We have officially lost cabin pressure.”Body Like A Back Road” has now spent TWENTY-NINE FREAKIN’ WEEKS AT NUMBER ONE!!!!!!
September 12, 2017 @ 6:51 am
Thirty-one weeks and still counting for “Body Like A Backroad!!!!”
September 19, 2017 @ 6:07 am
Thirty-two weeks!!!!(I get it;they’re trying to keep “Body Like A Backroad” Number One until Dec.8,Sam Hunt’s 33rd birthday!!!!)
September 26, 2017 @ 3:36 pm
Do you know who else should be kneeling?Country music fans to protest “Body Like A Backroad’s” THIRTY-THIRD WEEK topping the charts!!!!!!!
October 3, 2017 @ 8:10 am
Let me see…Death,taxes,and “Body Like A Backroad” topping the charts for THIRTY-FOUR WEEKS!!!
October 10, 2017 @ 6:20 am
THERE IS A GOD!!!!!!!”Body Like A Back Road” has FINALLY been toppled from the top of the Hot Country charts,and it took only 34 weeks!!!!!!!!(It’s Number Two,which is basically what “Body Like A Back Road” has always been!!!!!!)
December 20, 2018 @ 9:17 pm
This piece gave the song a deserved pillory and shellacking. I despise bro country for the same reasons I hated hair metal and most gangsta rap: the macho braggadocio and disgusting misogyny. Man, do I miss the sincere country tunes of two decades ago, when men knew how to treat women!