Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2015 22:47:12 GMT -5
I am a tiny little bit worried. After the almost brilliant Up On The Ridge, I never thought he would release such a bad and commercial album like Home... but he did. Hopefully it's not the same after Riser. Still, overall, I think he won't disappoint. And hopefully this time he will release the best tracks quickly, instead of waiting until single 5 to release the gem of the album.
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rsmatto
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Post by rsmatto on Dec 19, 2015 0:34:24 GMT -5
I am a tiny little bit worried. After the almost brilliant Up On The Ridge, I never thought he would release such a bad and commercial album like Home... but he did. Hopefully it's not the same after Riser. Still, overall, I think he won't disappoint. And hopefully this time he will release the best tracks quickly, instead of waiting until single 5 to release the gem of the album. Home got him back on the radio and towards Riser. He merely made the album he had to make. He wouldn't have had the touring career he has now without it.
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carriekins
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Post by carriekins on Dec 19, 2015 7:22:36 GMT -5
I wouldn't say Home is a bad CD - to me, his worst CD is Feel the Fire, and I feel like he agreed since he "walked away" for a bit after that and came back with Up on the Ridge. After that, he knew if he wanted to remain radio relevant, he had to play the game a bit more, and thus we got Home. More commercial, sure, but I don't think it's a bad album at all. There are some great, great songs on there. And I agree with Matt, that Home needed to happen in order to get to Riser.
Dierks is one who usually balks at the idea of fully playing the radio "game." While yeah there are songs like Sideways and 5150 in his catalog, the good far outweigh the bad (and I hate this argument, but it's true - they serve the live show well). Anyone willing to lead with a song like Bourbon in Kentucky is obviously a bit of an outlier.
I will say I expect more "fun"/uptempos from this album, but I'd prefer smart and well-written fun like What Was I Thinking, Free & Easy, and, yes, Drunk on a Plane to pandering fun like Sideways and 5150. I do not expect much of the r&b trend to show up, and I don't expect him to put out anything in the vein of That's my Kind of Night, either.
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rsmatto
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Post by rsmatto on Dec 19, 2015 9:11:17 GMT -5
I wouldn't say Home is a bad CD - to me, his worst CD is Feel the Fire, and I feel like he agreed since he "walked away" for a bit after that and came back with Up on the Ridge. After that, he knew if he wanted to remain radio relevant, he had to play the game a bit more, and thus we got Home. More commercial, sure, but I don't think it's a bad album at all. There are some great, great songs on there. And I agree with Matt, that Home needed to happen in order to get to Riser. Dierks is one who usually balks at the idea of fully playing the radio "game." While yeah there are songs like Sideways and 5150 in his catalog, the good far outweigh the bad (and I hate this argument, but it's true - they serve the live show well). Anyone willing to lead with a song like Bourbon in Kentucky is obviously a bit of an outlier. I will say I expect more "fun"/uptempos from this album, but I'd prefer smart and well-written fun like What Was I Thinking, Free & Easy, and, yes, Drunk on a Plane to pandering fun like Sideways and 5150. I do not expect much of the r&b trend to show up, and I don't expect him to put out anything in the vein of That's my Kind of Night, either. Home was just fun to me. The title track was impactful too.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2015 9:21:01 GMT -5
"Home" is probably my least favorite Dierks album, but it's by no means a bad album. In fact, even as his worst (IMO), it's still pretty good. I thought there was a good mix of commercial tunes (that didn't sound stupid), such as "5150", "Am I The Only One", and "Gonna Die Young" with more serious subject matter as evidenced on "Home", "When You Gonna Come Around", and "Thinking Of You"
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2015 11:33:18 GMT -5
I have literally zero concern/worries about Dierks' upcoming project. I expect it to be great. He's never let me down before and I don't think he will now. The way I see it, there's no way Luke Bryan would ever be able to influence Dierks' sound. They're friends, sure, but their music has always been very different.
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Ten Pound Hammer
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Post by Ten Pound Hammer on Dec 19, 2015 15:08:46 GMT -5
I thought "Home" was an amazing song, personally. I'd probably even put it at the top. And this is from someone who usually isn't fond of overtly patriotic songs.
The only songs of his that I outright dislike are "Sideways" (it has NO MELODY) and "I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes" (it's just "Come a Little Closer" with all the energy sapped from it). I was also ambivalent on "Am I the Only One", which I also thought suffered from a complete lack of energy. The "come on come on, get your good time on" parts in particular just sounded so lifeless.
I think that Dierks has mostly struck to his strengths. His sound hasn't changed radically since "What Was I Thinkin'". My only complaint is that sometimes, his melodies are very repetitive (e.g. the chorus of "Drunk on a Plane" or most of "Settle for a Slowdown"), but the repetition at least has a rhythmic feel to it, not like the endless so-mi-so-mi-so-mi-so 8th-note spamming that Casey Beathard does.
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gonecountry
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Post by gonecountry on Dec 19, 2015 16:00:41 GMT -5
I have literally zero concern/worries about Dierks' upcoming project. I expect it to be great. He's never let me down before and I don't think he will now. The way I see it, there's no way Luke Bryan would ever be able to influence Dierks' sound. They're friends, sure, but their music has always been very different.
Agree, I think Dierks puts out some high quality music and I am never worried. Even his party tunes are well written (IMO, the Country and Cold Cans EP was great) and these songs really serve to amp up his concerts. Even Songs like Am I The Only One, which I wasn't a huge fan of on the radio, sounds great in concert.
Feel the Fire was probably his weakest album and that is really due to I Want To Make You Close Your Eyes (the only Dierks song I just can't listen to). There was quite a few great songs on that album. I think Home really was a fine album as well - Home itself is incredible at an outdoor concert.
As much as I wanted to see Riser hit the top 10, if the plan is to make Dierks a-list in 2016, then I am eagerly awaiting it.
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onebuffalo
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Post by onebuffalo on Dec 19, 2015 16:26:17 GMT -5
I have literally zero concern/worries about Dierks' upcoming project. I expect it to be great. He's never let me down before and I don't think he will now. The way I see it, there's no way Luke Bryan would ever be able to influence Dierks' sound. They're friends, sure, but their music has always been very different.
Agree, I think Dierks puts out some high quality music and I am never worried. Even his party tunes are well written (IMO, the Country and Cold Cans EP was great) and these songs really serve to amp up his concerts. Even Songs like Am I The Only One, which I wasn't a huge fan of on the radio, sounds great in concert.
Feel the Fire was probably his weakest album and that is really due to I Want To Make You Close Your Eyes (the only Dierks song I just can't listen to). There was quite a few great songs on that album. I think Home really was a fine album as well - Home itself is incredible at an outdoor concert.
As much as I wanted to see Riser hit the top 10, if the plan is to make Dierks a-list in 2016, then I am eagerly awaiting it.
I hope you're right about the second part of your last statement. Thirteen years into his career and Dierks Bentley deserves a-list status. Darius Rucker got more buzz with his first single, Don't Think I Don't Think About It in 2008 than what Bentley did five years earlier with What Was I Thinkin'. Ironically, both were #1 hits. Hopefully, Capitol can get Bentley to be the #2 male on the roster behind Luke Bryan.
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Post by 43dudleyvillas on Dec 19, 2015 22:33:58 GMT -5
While I do think that Dierks is more than capable of being funny on his own, I actually don't think that individual wittiness is the main prerequisite for being a good awards show host, if for no other reason than these shows are not built to encourage a lot of ad-libbing. Luke & Blake are both capable of being funny, entertaining or at least goofy off the cuff, but it never translated to them being anything more than mediocre as ACM co-hosts. I think that came down to two factors: their lack of preparation for the show itself (it doesn't appear that they were deeply involved in the writing of the show, so they never looked like they knew the material well) and much more importantly, neither reads the teleprompter well. The latter is so important because it's not just about not stumbling over the line you're reading, it's also about delivering it in a natural manner and not screwing up the timing of the joke. This is where Blake & Luke failed over and over again.
To be fair, teleprompter reading is something that requires practice -- I would argue that a major key to Brad & Carrie's successful CMA co-hosting is that Carrie's mass communications background from college meant she came into show business with a lot of facility with a teleprompter, and so she can be (and is) relied upon to anchor their stints. So other than hoping that Dierks has some time to work on his teleprompter skills (I haven't known him to be a regular stumbler over words in prior presenting stints, so that's promising), I hope that Dierks and Luke take some time to sit down with the ACM writers to work on the show. I also think that Dierks brings with him another essential ingredient for these hosting stints, which is being friendly enough with enough of the industry's A-list that he can goof on them without feeling uncomfortable about it (and relatedly, he will know their senses of humor or lack thereof well enough to know what will play well with them and what won't). He is very well-liked among his peers, and that will help.
On his music, I think that, Up on the Ridge excepted, Dierks went through a pretty dull phase for a couple of mainstream albums preceding Riser (but again, Up on the Ridge was a significant exception that really can't be ignored). I hope that he feels empowered by his growing momentum during the Riser era to just be himself, because I don't think that he needs to change much of who he is in order to convert to bigger stardom, especially not in an environment that has seen Chris Stapleton break out and Eric Church succeed as well as he has. Granted, Dierks' move to co-host the ACMs puts him in more of a "celebrity" spot than Stapleton and Church have ever occupied, but I don't see why that would have to change his music rather than just being an asset to strengthen the association of his hit music with the name and face of Dierks Bentley.
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