Song Review – Kenny Chesney’s “Noise”
Listen, I don’t need Kenny freaking Chesney preaching to me about the ills of modern society and the trappings of technology. He needs to be on a damn beach somewhere with his stupid puka shell necklace and sand in his ass crack, contracting melanoma with a Corona in his hand. That’s the Kenny Chesney we’ve known and bemoaned for 20 years now.
This fanciful notion of Kenny Chesney as social activist all started back in 2014 with his record The Big Revival, or actually back in 2013 when Kenny Chesney had a trend-chasing Bro-Country record all rip raring ready to go, and shitcanned it because he saw the writing on the wall and where everything was headed. It might have saved Kenny’s career, but it also sent him down this path where now he thinks his inane music can save the world. The problem is, it was Kenny Chesney and folks like him that bred an entire generation of mind-numbed consumer-driven robots to begin with. Now he wants credit for stimulating a great awakening from the nightmare he helped create.
“Noise” is not a bad song. It’s not a good one either, and it’s certainly not country. But it’s not bad. And is it better than Bro-Country or some island ballad? I guess it is, but only as the lesser of evils. The problem here is that the song takes itself too seriously, and it’s built from the same stupid formula Kenny Chesney has used before. Kenny tells this really inspired story of how the song came about…
Sometimes you know you’ve got something so timely, so right then, you have to grab it. It seemed like everywhere I turn, everywhere I go, there is so much stuff coming at you. Your phone, your car, on the streets, on TV. Everywhere it’s just so loud, so much, so many different things all pushing buttons, being sensational, shouting for attention. You can’t escape it, and you can’t turn it down.
…so then he turns around, contracts three other professional songwriters, including “Count Formula” himself Shane McAnally, the ubiquitous Ross Cooperman, and cuts a song that doesn’t cut through the “noise” that interrupts our thoughts, it arguably lends to it, and isn’t as much timely as it is opportunist to take advantage of the political climate. It just takes too much pride in itself for being original when in truth the message is rehashed, tired, and ineffective. It doesn’t help that the music itself really doesn’t go anywhere and just feels like whitewashed blandrock.
Go back and listen to the lead single “American Kids” from Kenny Chesney’s last album, and then listen to this song. It’s pretty much the same thing. Both start off with a sequenced, electronic rhythm, both have initial verses that do nothing more than just list off items, and both do so in a monotone “melody” that hangs on the same note through the phrase before falling off at the end. They’re both even set in the same two dominant chords of ‘G’ and ‘C’.
Beginning phrase from “American Kids”: “Double wide, quick stop, midnight, T-top, Jack in her Cherry Coke town.”
Beginning phrase from “Noise”: “Wrecking balls, downtown construction, bottles breaking, jukebox, buzzing, cardboard sign says ‘The Lord is coming.”
Phrase from Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: “Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock.”
In fact when Kenny Chesney sings the line in “Noise,” “We didn’t turn it on but we can’t turn it off,” I got visions of Billy Joel and his, “We didn’t light it but we’re trying to fight it.”
I truly do appreciate the effort to actually say something in “Noise” instead of just demanding hot bodied girls into the cab of your truck or crooning a cacophonous homage to corporate beer delivered in a tractor rap. But it’s like ever since Chesney got old enough for regular prostate exams, he thinks he’s Bernie Sanders and wants to save mankind. And meanwhile the marketing doesn’t match up with the effort. It’s similar to how Chesney portrayed his single “Wild Child” as empowering to women when it was about some loose groupie. If anyone, anyone spends a second less on their smartphone after hearing “Noise,” I’ll eat my hat.
Even “Noise” seems to admit to the ineffectiveness of the effort.
“We can’t sleep, we can’t think, cant escape the noise
We can’t take the noise, so we just make noise.”
And that’s what “Noise” is. It’s just noise.
March 28, 2016 @ 11:59 am
The following may occur after listening to “Noise”
Step 1 – Open kitchen drawer…
Step 2 – Locate and remove ice pick…
Step 3 – Insert pick into either left or right ear…
Step 4 – Push until the “noise” stops and the lights go out…
May 16, 2016 @ 11:12 am
My wife listens to “country” music in the car and when I heard Noise I thought it was a very appropriate title. Modern country is just noise to me, and I can’t stand it. The worst thing about this song is that it contains earworms, and hours after hearing it the stupid refrain keeps going through your head.
May 25, 2016 @ 1:40 am
I COULDN’T HAVE SAID IT BETTER!
March 28, 2016 @ 11:59 am
Uh oh. Kenny is entering his socially conscious, adult contemporary phase. This is definitely an improvement over the Jimmy Buffet phase, but I have always felt Kenny is best at simple romantic ballads “I lost it” “You had me from hello”, “Anything but Mine” that sort of thing. Looking at his discography, I don’t know if many artists have been more all over the place, which is why I have a really hard time trying to categorize his career or figure out what his legacy actually is. I don’t even know how I feel about him most of the time.
March 28, 2016 @ 11:59 am
As you say, we’ve heard worse, we’ve heard better. All in all a pretty nondescript offering.
I have no major issues with Kenny Chesney, but both this song and “Reality” really ring hollow being released some 15-20 years into the “Beach Kenny” era. We all know that if Kenny would like to escape reality, or get away from the noise, all he has to do is point the yacht toward an island with spotty Wi-Fi.
March 28, 2016 @ 12:10 pm
I don’t like the filter they put on his voice in the lyrics. It sounds similar (but not as exagerated) as the one Miranda had in Smokin’ & Drinking. Especially considering the content of the song, you’d think that they’d want it to be a little more organic.
March 28, 2016 @ 12:40 pm
The thing about this song is, I respect the idea for it wholeheartedly.
I just don’t think it was executed well.
*
First, while I commend Chesney and the song’s writers for drawing more attention to the noise pollution saturating numerous aspects of our culture and the way we communicate……………….it only really scratches at the surface of the problem.
Sure, we can all relate to how irritable the ubiquitous rattling of construction machinery and broken bottles can sound. But what does this mean? WHY is it something we can’t stand? The lyrics identify WHAT is causing the sound but doesn’t really posit WHY the narrator can’t stand it and why it is such a problem other than that there is a void of conversation.
Which THAT would make for a pretty compelling, poignant song in itself. I feel like Five For Fighting already achieved that well with “Slice”. Here, it’s all just exposition but offers no real understanding of the WHY and HOW we can (and should) come to terms with it. The bridge pretty much sums up the song as a whole: it identifies the problem but ultimately amounts to little more than passive acceptance in the wake of it.
*
Which leads us to the production, and why it further renders this track ineffectual.
You can tell Chesney and his producer are clearly aiming for a John Mellencamp vibe here a la “Pink Houses”. But Buddy Cannon completely misses the mark in recognizing what made Mellencamp’s body of work sound so authentic: it had a rootsy, heartland flavor to the instrumentation that made his populist appeal sound effortless.
Here, the synthetic effects and handclap percussion sound so stilted and inorganic. And considering how the song’s title is basically all-caps, the overall arrangement and production sounds so safe and conventional. The pedestrian, U2-light production of the chorus completely squelches and betrays the urgency of the lyricism; to the extent where we just aren’t the least convinced Chesney is clasping his hands over his ears and lamenting: “Can’t stand the noise!”. (If he can’t take the sound of “Noise”, I cringe imagining what torture “Drink It Up” and “The Big Revival” from his previous album inflicted on his ear canals).
Seriously, I would have welcomed a production treatment much like that of “The Big Revival” here. At least it would have fit the dark, ominous mood of the lyrics………………..even if it wasn’t the least country-sounding.
*
So yeah………………..Chesney and his producer may consider this “Noise”, but to me it’s “Shrinking Violet”.
I’m thinking a Light to Decent 4 out of 10 for this, if only because it actually tries to address a meatier topic and at least doesn’t insult your intelligence.
March 28, 2016 @ 1:36 pm
Yes, it scratches the surface and complains, but fails to confront the underlying issues, or talk about solutions. “Noise” is almost more like a resignation to the problems.
March 28, 2016 @ 1:31 pm
Trigger, do you think Kenny is gonna be as calculating as Tim Mcgraw and cut more songs that deviate from bro-country? I was actually a fan of Kenny’s more traditional, early stuff like “Fall in Love”, “All I need to know”, “Me and You”, “When I close my eyes”, “She’s Got it All” (which has an infectious steel guitar solo), “The Tin Man”, and “That’s Why I’m Here”. Pre-pirate Kenny was much better, in my opinion.
March 28, 2016 @ 1:35 pm
The difference between Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney is McGraw’s songs are actually pretty well-written. Kenny’s graze the surface of being well-written, just like “Noise,” but fall apart under scrutiny. McGraw’s “Humble & Kind” says what “Noise” tries to, plus so much more. That said, like with anyone, we have to wait until Chesney’s new album is actually released to see what he does. I’d welcome him releasing better songs.
March 28, 2016 @ 2:36 pm
I think the word you may be looking for Trigger is ” Heart ” THAT’S what differentiates the song choices by the two artists in question . Somewhere way down deep , TM seems to have and share more of it .
March 28, 2016 @ 1:56 pm
Puka shells. 😛
March 28, 2016 @ 1:59 pm
Yeah, great name to pick for this song…..because to me all it sounds like is a bunch of NOISE. The rock guitars are so loud and there is so much going on in the song you have to strain to hear the vocals. As a fan in general of alot of pop country, the first thing I thought when I heard this song is this song sucks.
Chesney needs to hang it up. He has changed his music so much that it doesn’t sound even remotely close to albums he put out just a few years ago. He’s a total sell out, a corporate cock sucker that has sucked so much dick to keep relevant in today’s pop country genre and change his music to keep getting huge hits like Tim McGraw has over recent years. I grew up listening to Chesney and i always really liked his music, but The Big Revival and this song (and probably the upcoming album) is so bad that its not even worth taking the time to listen to.
March 28, 2016 @ 2:05 pm
Yep. I got sick of Kenny Chesney before I got sick of modern country on the whole for these reasons and many more. As I’ve iterated elsewhere, he single-handedly killed any affection I might have had for beach music, and that’s not an exaggeration. Any time I hear any swooning, tropical sounds I immediately recoil and decide whether I want to fiddle with my dial or fight it long enough to give the song a chance. Adding insult to injury is that he’s long been overplayed, which is truthfully where my resentment originally took root.
Just as a heads up, the above sentence seems to imply that Kenny has an album named after the song “American Kids”, which was actually a single from The Big Revival. Sorry for any offense this comment might incense, but it’s quicker than email for what appears to be a somewhat major error.
March 28, 2016 @ 2:32 pm
“Double wide, quick stop, midnight, T-top, Jack in her Cherry Coke town.”
“Wrecking balls, downtown construction, bottles breaking, jukebox, buzzing, cardboard sign says ”˜The Lord is coming.”
Don’t forget Edie Rabbit’s classic DRIVIN MY LIFE AWAY, which I’m convinced KC stole American Kids from :
‘midnight, headlights , find you on a rainy night , steep grade up ahead , slowin me down makin ni time ”
Review is dead on Trigger . I’d go as far as to say KC is as out-of-step with this as the bro-boys are with …whatever they are schilling . This is old news …society is completely aware of everything this song says . What’s never been addressed in a song (and likely will never BE ) , is the fact, based on stats, that we , as a society are ADDICTED to this barrage and relentless onslaught of information and “NOISE” . We are all suffering from ADD ……distracted to greater and lesser degrees as much by CHOICE as circumstance and it will take legislation in most instances to remedy this social malaise . However , these choices are seen as freedoms and these ‘ freedoms’ are preyed upon by the noisemakers in the name of profits so we’d best not hold our collective breath waiting for that legislation . OK ….so yup ….that’s a mouthful to swallow let alone set to rhyme and preach to people who don’t want to hear it and the folks who profit by the turnstile of technologies responsible for much of it so yeah …….KC has done his part by at least acknowledging in song what we all know to be true in our hearts even if he is way late off the mark with it . Not a terrible song ….and I’d agree …perhaps the least of several other evils but still derivative , not very creative and ultimately forgettable . PERFECT for mainstream ” country ‘ radio .
March 28, 2016 @ 3:33 pm
Don’t drag billy joel into this shit. He’s good people, he doesn’t need this.
One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just does not belong…
March 28, 2016 @ 6:50 pm
Maybe you’re being sarcastic, but just to clarify, I’ve got no problem with Billy Joel or “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” If anything, he deserves a songwriting credit here. He wrote a song that some 25 years later people are still copying.
March 29, 2016 @ 4:52 am
1,000% sarcastic there. We’re all good!
March 28, 2016 @ 4:00 pm
Every great once in a while Kenny will release something decent. You and Tequila with Grace Potter comes to mind. Unfortunately, this is not one of those releases.
March 28, 2016 @ 4:04 pm
Billy Joe Shave NAILS IT NAILS IT NAILS IT with his response to the question of ” who catches his ire in terms of songs/songwriters today “. From the San Antonio Current :
“Well you know ”¦ just a little bit. I know some of these guys write really good songs, and some of them have slumped a little bit. But for the most part, the guys who write good always write good. It just seems like people haven”™t been picking their songs. And a lot of these guys who get real popular, they”™re good looking and all. And they get real popular. When they come to town, they get with some tough dog, used to be folks like Hank Cochran, and they write a song together. And they”™ll be half writer on it. But of course they don”™t say that. They get to thinking they can write like that too. And they have such a fan base that they sell a bunch of records. And they get to thinking that they can write good songs, but [the songs] just really aren”™t. I guess the best way to put it is: if the boot fits, wear it. If somebody gets offended by that, then they”™re the ones I was aiming at.”
March 28, 2016 @ 5:48 pm
This is ultimately where I fall as well.
On one hand I applaud Chesney for at least trying to convey this type of message in a song, especially as a single to a mainstream audience. On the other however, I’ll preach with the choir that says this is all just noise. It’s the complete opposite of the message that entails and that leaves me just a confused listener.
Since this is a lead single to a brand new album, I’m curious to see what direction Chesney takes his music. For now?……Eh
March 28, 2016 @ 6:46 pm
You have to say that compared to some other lead singles, including from people like Dierks Bentley, at least it’s not destructive.
March 28, 2016 @ 7:22 pm
It was just reported that this song has the most adds to country radio with 1 week adds totaling 138. That’s insane. That has to be a record-breaker….i’ve never seen a song be added to that many stations in a week.
March 28, 2016 @ 8:07 pm
I listen to this and then I listen to Miranda Lambert’s “Automatic” (which in my opinion is a loosely similar theme) and I think Miranda has done a much better job with the theme. And I’m not a Miranda Lambert fan at all, so that’s saying something…
March 28, 2016 @ 9:51 pm
I dig it.
March 29, 2016 @ 4:57 am
Go easy on Kenny, he has had some damn good songs in the past.
March 29, 2016 @ 10:23 am
All the more reason to call him out when he falls short today.
Acts like Florida-Georgia Line are the ones who can get a pass based on their history, simply because there’s no reason to expect better from them.
March 29, 2016 @ 7:52 am
This song is beyond terrible…has zero feel. Good thing country’s bar is so low
March 29, 2016 @ 8:25 am
Chesney can actually be pretty decent. Though I never cared for his beach songs, he’s one of my favorite heavily played radio artists of the past 10 years. I think his best single of the past 10 years is “Better As a Memory.” He can play the role of a drifter better than most country artists these days I think.
March 29, 2016 @ 8:42 am
Bring da noise–at least it covered up some of the whiny-ness.
So it is only a -900,000 on a scale on 1 to 10.
March 29, 2016 @ 8:56 am
“I truly do appreciate the effort to actually say something in “Noise” instead of just demanding hot bodied girls into the cab of your truck or crooning a cacophonous homage to corporate beer delivered in a tractor rap. But it”™s like ever since Chesney got old enough for regular prostate exams, he thinks he”™s Bernie Sanders and wants to save mankind.” this might be the best quote ever
March 29, 2016 @ 2:43 pm
I’m sure this will be a new favorite for everyone who tries to appear “deep” on social media.
March 29, 2016 @ 7:39 pm
Read the review. Clicked on the video. Took a swig of beer. Belched. Liked the sound of the belch better. Stopped the video. Started listening to something good.
April 4, 2016 @ 7:58 am
I actually like a lot of his beach music in the right setting. Did he go back to it too much? Probably. But he made some very good songs in that style. I also love a lot of his older country songs. I guess I just think that of all people to pick on, and out of all of country music’s completely terrible artists, KC should be pretty far down the list.
April 5, 2016 @ 1:53 am
I don’t mind some of his older stuff, but this is just so boring. As Trigger put it, “blandrock” is the perfect term for this (and much of mainstream country music today). I just can’t stand all these songs with the lame soft rock (and non-country) sound – I only made it to the first chorus on this one.
April 5, 2016 @ 7:28 am
Country artists nowadays don’t how to bow out gracefully.They either are botoxed to high heavens
( reba) or they are still pretending to 18.
June 5, 2016 @ 4:46 pm
Funny a song a out Noise, is making more….well, noise.
August 19, 2016 @ 11:25 am
I didn’t really like it when I first heard it but the music video makes the song better. Still nothing Id buy though