Song Review – Jon Pardi’s “Friday Night Heartbreaker”

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Despite your drunk uncle saying there hasn’t been a good country song since 1987, country music continues to improve across the board, and to sound more country than any other time in the last nearly 20 years. There are definitely exceptions, but there are also strong country artists popping up like sprouts of new life in the barren landscape all over the place. See: Zach Top.

Part of the reason for this resurgence was the early success of Jon Pardi and his more traditional approach to popular country music. But just because Jon Pardi was a party to helping turn things around, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee he will be a beneficiary of this recent traditionalist resurgence. One of the flies in the ointment of the recent traditionalist insurgency is that some of the artists who deserve to be riding that wave have been unfairly overlooked. See: Silverada.

John Pardi’s album California Sunrise (2016) and Heartache Medication (2019) did surprisingly well in the mainstream for their traditional sound. But 2022’s Mr. Saturday Night sold through poorly, so apparently they’ve decided he needs a “Friday Night Heartbreaker,” and it’s Jon Pardi’s traditional country fans whose hearts are getting broken.

Years ago we used to refer to Scott Borchetta of Big Machine Records around here as the “Country Music Antichrist” for his work with Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line, and the like. Now perhaps that moniker is more apropos for producer Jay Joyce who’s at least partially responsible for this song, as are the FIVE writers, Daniel Ross, Jessie Jo Dillon, Josh Miller, Chris Tompkins, and Ryan Hurd.

Joyce is polishing up his reputation of taking country artists and turning their music into overproduced pop rock slop. He did a similar number on Lainey Wilson’s new album Whirlwind (read review). Not only do these results cut across the grain of the trends that even most in the mainstream country music industry recognize, it’s fair to question if “Friday Night Heartbreaker” will even get the kind of radio traction that it clearly panders for.

This is the problem with corporate music. If an artist isn’t showing increasing returns—even if it’s partially the label’s fault for not promoting them right like we’ve seen with Pardi—some massive rebranding is employed that sometimes spikes interest in commercial markets, but often leads to a career implosion because you killed your grassroots. See: The Band Perry.

To play a little devil’s advocate here, Jon Pardi never had the best of country voices, and you saw this criticism commonly. Perhaps a more ultra-produced approach—including whatever kind of Auto-Tune hell they run his voice through here—can help ingratiate him to an audience that doesn’t care about talent or traditional country sounds, and is more interested in safe and familiar tones aiming toward digital perfection.

But if Jon Pardi is trying to be a pop artist, he’s going to find out real fast that he’s a small fish in a big sea. It sucks that his last album didn’t sell through well when it should have. Jon Pardi is a good country artist, and a fine singer, even if not a great one. But it feels like a stretch and a risk to say that “Friday Night Heartbreaker” is any sort of solution. About the only compliments you can give it is to rightfully point out that there’s worse on country radio.

It’s never smart to judge and upcoming mainstream album on a lead single. It’s often the worst of the album. But it’s also fair to judge “Friday Night Heartbreaker” as being pretty bad.

1 1/2 Guns DOWN (3/10)

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