Garth Brooks - "People Loving People"

[countrymusic20]

Like the song ... from the lyrics I could understand ... I've heard it on radio cranked way up in my truck twice ... I can make out about 2/3 of what he's saying. I was expecting something a little more country. The production sounds about like I thought it would - it sounds ok for 1995 ... but for 2014 it sounds like a bad board mix. Too bad Garth didn't take advantage of the modern day technology that available and too bad he didn't use one of the great new engineers here in this town.

[trebor]

Chris Young "Aw Naw" (Intro/Outro) meets Patti Smith & Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers

[mus1cr0w]

Sept 3, 2014 10:02:41 GMT -5 countrymusic20 said:

The production sounds about like I thought it would - it sounds ok for 1995 ... but for 2014 it sounds like a bad board mix. Too bad Garth didn't take advantage of the modern day technology that available and too bad he didn't use one of the great new engineers here in this town.

This. Well stated.

MR

[Uncle Lumpy]

I've only heard it twice through my crappy work truck speakers but I don't really hear the sound issues everyone else has (so far).I also don't really hear that his voice has deteriorated as some have remarked. But then , I always thought Garth's voice was a bit thin compared to his peers. I do agree with the "We Shall Be Free veer.2" comments however. I was worried as soon as the title was released. More power to him releasing the music he wants , but certainly he has to be aware that this isn't the Garth most people miss? As a whole, the song isn't my bag , but I would still rather hear this then about 75% of what is passing as country these days. Hopefully some of the future music from him will hearken back to a more "classic" Garth.

[sabre14]

I have mixed feelings about this. I agree with jhomes87 and others who say that his voice sounds rather thin and weak on this than some of his past releases. But on the other hand, I've always realized his vocals were never the strongest in the genre. Perhaps his album will feature other tracks that can show him stronger vocally.

As for the song itself - I actually kind of like this. It does fall into the same category as "We Shall Be Free" (which is one of my least favorite Garth songs ever), but the lyrics here have a less corny, preachy feel to them like the previously mentioned "We Shall Be Free" did. I do wish it sounded more country in the production (and I agree about the mixed-up production and that is one aspect I wish was better) and instrumentation - I was hoping for something similar to "Good Ride Cowboy", but once I found out the title, I knew that was most likely wishful thinking. 

In the end, this is exactly the kind of song in terms of subject matter I expected Garth to come back with. It's clearly not his best work, and to me at least, not as good as his last comeback single "More Than A Memory"; However I'm willing to let this grow on me, and I think it will in the weeks to come.

[zjames]

The first verse is pretty weak, but the rest of the song really picks up and sounds a lot better. I actually really like this. I think Garth sounds great in the chorus. I hope radio fully embraces this.

[dajross6]

Yeah I think this is close to what I expected the comeback single to be. Thinking about this from a logical standpoint, we all knew it wasn't going to be Garth circa 90-97 because it just isn't possible. We all hoped it wouldn't be country radio 2010-2014, which leaves us in that come and go Garth period of the first decade of the century where he came back a few times. I didn't like Good Ride Cowboy and other Garth singles around that time, but this seems to fit into that period to me.

The song itself is something I can get behind. It's actually quite nice to hear a song on the radio that doesn't have a bass beat impaling your brain no matter if it's a ballad or uptempo song. I appreciate the fact he probably didn't use the newest technology he could to produce this and that's what makes it unique. Nobody can argue that this sounds like anything else on the radio, whether they like the song or not. Sure, I would love to have Garth sing an old cowboy song like when he was selling millions of albums a year, but let's keep it in perspective.

[sabre14]

Even though the audio links to different websites have been posted, "People Loving People" is now under Cool New Music on All Access

[rjz]

Heard it today on the way to work. Was very underwhelmed. Garbled production, thin weak vocals (so much that I wondered if this was really Garth Brooks??) and very mediocre.
Disappointed.
I thought at the time-'Wow, am I that hard to please?' or 'is there something wrong with the sound on my radio' but I am surprised how many here had the same impression

[mikeymike00]

I just took my first listen to this and by no means am I impressed. As many have said he is hard to understand and it just feels boring. I do enjoy what the song has to say but, it does nothing for me at all.

[McCreerian (Harris 2024!)]

Can we still get "Tacoma"?

This is definately WSBF part 2! And I agree this is Garth Gaines!

[dm2081]

I don't know, I found the song to be really preachy and corny, which makes for a really bad combination. IMO, it's one of the worst songs of the year. The production is terrible, it sounds like 90's Top 40, and not even remotely country, and I can't understand anything he is singing. The song just sounds really dated and boring. If this is the best he can offer after so many years off then he is not going to change the landscape of current country music like many have suggested. Automatic station changer for me.

[jonathanalan]

Turned the station toward the middle of the song. No thanks.

[Deleted]

this was not what i was expecting production wise, not sure how i feel might take a couple listens. Itll do well though solely because its his comeback single. I hope the album is at least different

[McCreerian (Harris 2024!)]

It is just a musical version the thought "Can't we all just get along?". "We Shall Be Free" already relayed that message in 1992. If Garth can't be more original than this, I think he just should have stayed retired from recording new music. When he came out in 2007 with "More Than A Memory" that was a strong statement of love and loss. "Tacoma" demo was wonderful and I was so looking forward to Garth's spin on it. Everything about Garth's comeback has gone downhill ever since the Ireland incident. Suddenly I think his threat on the single's chart won't be one at all, maybe just a week or 2. I don't see radio putting this song in regular rotation and the new generation of fans wanting to hear it. I think when the Callout America scores comes out, Garth has a rude awakening coming. If this song dies, I can see him just canceling his album just like he did Ireland. He is a big baby to criticism.

[kw9461]

I'm certainly not loving this on first listen, but I'm also just not really sure what to make of it. The mix is AWFUL, and I think I might like the song if it were mixed properly. His voice does sound thin at times, but it sounds fine at others, and it really just goes back to the sound engineer not doing his job well. I'm not surprised Garth chose this subject matter for his comeback vehicle (Garth has always had a bit of a fantastical view of things), but it just isn't distinctive enough to be Garth's lead single. This will easily make the top 10, but then what? I certainly can't see this selling well (is the single even going to be for sale?) or testing well once the frenzy dies down. It would be best for his team to get this to the top 10, then quickly toss out a 2nd single before the album drops - something a little bit more Garth.

[dm2081]

Sept 3, 2014 15:46:44 GMT -5 McCreerian (Harris 2024!) said:

It is just a musical version the thought "Can't we all just get along?". "We Shall Be Free" already relayed that message in 1992. If Garth can't be more original than this, I think he just should have stayed retired from recording new music. When he came out in 2007 with "More Than A Memory" that was a strong statement of love and loss. "Tacoma" demo was wonderful and I was so looking forward to Garth's spin on it. Everything about Garth's comeback has gone downhill ever since the Ireland incident. Suddenly I think his threat on the single's chart won't be one at all, maybe just a week or 2. I don't see radio putting this song in regular rotation and the new generation of fans wanting to hear it. I think when the Callout America scores comes out, Garth has a rude awakening coming. If this song dies, I can see him just canceling his album just like he did Ireland. He is a big baby to criticism.

I couldn't agree anymore.  No way is this going to the 7,000 or so spins it takes to get in the top 3 on Mediabase.  The main target audience for Country radio will not want to hear this song.  I wish it was getting released to iTunes, because I think it would sell decently on there for a couple of days, then fall out of the Top 100 for good.  A song like this just can't compete with the Luke Bryans, Jason Aldeans, and Miranda Lamberts of the charts these days.

[14887fan]

I'm not sure if he's going for a more organic-sounding vocal or if he's stuck in the sound technology of 90s, but this sounds like a bad demo tape. The song barely edges out a decent lyric, on top of that.

Not a good way to come back to Country radio.

[someguy]

I don't mind this, but it also isn't anywhere near as good as I was hoping it would be. I agree that it sounds a lot like "We Shall Be Free", which is unfortunately one of my least favorite Garth songs. I don't think it's awful by any means, but it's not also a great song to bring him back all the way. I still think will go at least top 10, but who knows after that. I wouldn't be surprised if it's up-and-down the charts in about two months, so that a second single will be nearing the top 10 before the album hits. I hope that there is a lot better sounding material on the album.

[Markus Meyer]

After a couple listens I don't mind this at all. My biggest issue is he sounds very weak and thin here at times. Other than that I don't find it to be half bad.

[Steven]

Tried googling ''People Loving People'' and couldn't find a site so I can listen to it. Where are you guys hearing it?

[tonyei31]

While this is not typical Garth or what I was expecting I really like this song. I enjoy the message as it's not about getting "that fine tail with alcohol". It has a feel of something that I would hear from Matt Nathanson. It has a folk indie feel with country mixed in. Really unique production take from my perspective. Lyrically not very deep but when I compare this to the recent hyped debut of Jason Aldean's single this is tons better.

[sabre14]

Sept 3, 2014 18:19:25 GMT -5 Steven said:

Tried googling ''People Loving People'' and couldn't find a site so I can listen to it. Where are you guys hearing it?

There's two separate links on page 5 of this thread. 

There's also the audio from All Access on this page if you scroll up.

[Andy]

As a pretty big Garth fan, I'm very underwhelmed by this. The production is aggressively generic and not particularly country, the lyrics' message is overly simplistic and has been done to death, and Garth's vocals are uncharacteristically weak. It sounds like a filler album cut from a mediocre '90s act, not the comeback single from the genre's biggest ever superstar. Maybe my opinion will change in time but that's my view as of now.

[Deleted]

I get that he didn't use a lot of modern technology when it came to recording this, but I never had a problem understanding what he was singing in all of his music from the 90's. So I just don't get what went wrong here--it is just mixed terribly.

I wouldn't care if the song sounded somewhat dated (as I much prefer the country music of 10-20 years ago), but that's not really what I'm hearing. I'm just hearing a thin vocal buried under some guitars. The mix is just...off.

I'm sure with all the attention the song is getting today that it will debut at least somewhere in the 20's on Billboard, but I disagree with ezherman in that this will go down like "More Than A Memory" did. That was a very organized push by Big Machine and Garth's team in order to claim a #1 debut and it will never happen again. The situation with "People Loving People" will probably just be a typical Clear Channel deal--in that all CC stations will spin it once an hour today and then keep it in medium rotation for the rest of the week, and it'll slowly build from there. Plus, this was released on the wrong day of the week to have any chance of scoring a super huge (top 10 or #1) debut. It will only have 5 days of airplay on Billboard and 4 at Mediabase.

Although, there are non-Clear Channel stations that are spinning this once an hour today as well, so perhaps it can crack the top 20 when it debuts? It's hard to say. The only thing that's certain is that PLP will have a very splashy entrance on Mediabase tomorrow morning. From there it's anybody's guess.

Personally, I don't think this was the right choice to lead off the album, and I don't see this being a #1 hit. I'm just very surprised that this was the choice Garth and RCA made. I expected something with tempo or perhaps a well-written midtempo, but not a 'message' song like this. The message itself (that people loving people will benefit the world and everyone in it) is a good one, but I just don't think it works well as a song, for a variety of reasons.

I'm definitely looking forward to the other stuff he's recorded but I'm definitely a bit disappointed in this lead single. It doesn't sound like today's country music (which is fine), but it doesn't sound like the 90's or really anything else, either. Other than the "We Shall Be Free" similarities, this sounds very un-Garth.

[jferstler]

I can understand where people are coming from with the horrible production. But this by no means a bad song, Garth sounds good to me. This is exactly what I expected from the title " People Loving People". Hopefully we get Something Honky Tonk-ish as the next single.

[Steven]

Sept 3, 2014 18:43:57 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

Sept 3, 2014 18:19:25 GMT -5 Steven said:

Tried googling ''People Loving People'' and couldn't find a site so I can listen to it. Where are you guys hearing it?

There's two separate links on page 5 of this thread. 

There's also the audio from All Access on this page if you scroll up.

Ah, thanks! must've just scrolled through the pages too fast and that is why I couldn't find it.

[Fanofctrymusic]

Country
No.1 Lady Antebellum Bartender
+138662 Garth Brooks People Loving People

[Deleted]

Sept 4, 2014 3:48:10 GMT -5 Fanofctrymusic said:

Country
No.1 Lady Antebellum Bartender
+138662 Garth Brooks People Loving People

*Whistles*

That's a pretty hefty day--13.866 million Billboard impressions in just one day, and it was only out beginning at 7am eastern.

PLP pops up at #30 on Mediabase this morning with 1585 spins and 13.725 million impressions there. Now, I'm assuming he won't be getting hourly airplay for the rest of the week (like he did with "More Than A Memory"), but if he gains even 2 mil a day for the next 3 days, he can probably pass everyone (on Mediabase) from Parmalee on down, and possibly Big & Rich as well.

He's got 4 more days left in the Billboard week, so as per usual, this will be a higher Billboard debut than on MB. If Garth average 2 mil a day there over 4 days, that's 8 million more impressions which gets him up near 22 million. On this week's chart, Eric Church is at 18.5 mil, Keith Urban is at 18.7 mil, ZBB is at 19.4 mil, Blake is at 19.6 mil, LBT is at 20.7 mil, and EYB is at 21.4 mil. It's quite conceivable that Garth could jump over all of this group with the exception being Blake, since he's gained about 1 mil per day on MB so far this week.

I don't see any top 20 songs going recurrent on BB unless either Chase or Brantley can sneak ahead of Dierks in spins, but that seems unlikely. Still, it's looking to me like Garth could manage a #17 debut (passing everyone from EYB on down, with Blake being the exception). And he could get even higher if he manages to challenge the Frankie Ballard/Sam Hunt/Swon Bros. trio.

That's just a rough 'outline' of what could happen, though. If PLP has a total audience of 17 million tomorrow, the scenario changes. So we really just have to wait and see what each day brings.

[rbundy1987]

Huge Announcement coming later today according to Garth in this short video.

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