Chris Lane - "Girl Problems"

[sabre14]

Released August 5th through Big Loud Records.




Girl Problems Track List:

1. “Fix” (Sarah Buxton, Jesse Frasure, Abe Stoklasa)
2. “For Her” (Matt Dragstrem, Kelly Archer, Sarah Buxton)
3. “Let Me Love You” (Kameron Houff, Shaffer Smith, Scott Storch)
4. “Who’s It Gonna Be” (Nick Bailey, Kevin Fisher, James “JHart” Abrahart, Ryan Ogren)
5. “Back To Me” (Cary Barlowe, Josh Thompson, Rob Persaud)
6. “Maybe” (Jacob Hawkes, David Pramik, Charlie Snyder, Eben Wares)
7. “Her Own Kind Of Beautiful” (Rodney Clawson, Barry Dean, Matt Dragstrem)
8. “All The Time” (James “JHart” Abrahart, Jordan Evans, Chelcee Grimes, Tayla Parkx, Tinashe Sibanda)
9. “Circles” featuring Mackenzie Porter (Steph Jones, Joey Moi, Danny Parker, Sno, Emily Warren)
10. “Saturday Night” (Ashley Gorley, Luke Laird, Shane McAnally)
11. “All About You” (Andy Albert, Chris Lane, Jordan Schmidt)
12. “Girl Problems” (Chris DeStefano, Ashley Gorley, Josh Kear)

[maine]

I unashamedly really like this album. I feel like if he didn't lead off with "Fix", this would be better received. "Maybe" is so good.

[sabre14]

I think I have discovered the most annoying vocal arrangement on any track of any album branded as "Country." That track is "Who's It Gonna Be"...yikes...actually, "All The Time" comes pretty close..

I knew this album wouldn't be to my liking but yeah, they weren't kidding when Chris and company said there would be more falsetto on the album other than "Fix." "Her Kind Of Beautiful" sounds like what would happen if The Backstreet Boys went Country and Joey Moi produced it. "For Her" is more falsetto and Pop production (likely the next single) and "All The Time" is such a strange and even creepy track...it's a flat out Rhythmic/R&B song...with some banjo buried in the mix and that falsetto...

Only track I find tolerable through one listen is "Back To Me", that one's okay. The rest of this album is Pop through and through. The heavy production and backbeat is on every single song, too.

I know we've this discussion so many times over the past 3-4 years but this is literally nowhere near Country. It wouldn't go anywhere on Pop radio but that doesn't mean it fits within the Country music format to me. Hearing a song like "For Her" or "Who's It Gonna Be" being played next to "Vinyl" or "Holdin' Her" is ridiculous, period.

[LBTrocks]

First of all, his falsetto is terrible and he needs to stop using it.

"Girl Problems" is the best song on the album. Its really great. "Fix" is probably my second favorite, not gonna lie. It took me a little while to warm up to the studio, but I can't help but crank it up every time its on the radio. "Let Me Love You" also has an excellent melody. sabre14 for some reason I thought you'd like that one lol

Pretty much everything else I either disliked or found forgettable.

[sabre14]

"Let Me Love You" is a good subject and one I can relate to...but it's executed so terribly by Lane. The song sounds like a top 40 song from 1998.

And while I'm here (going to bed soon), Lane sounds so scary on "All The Time", literally...he doesn't sound human on that track.

[maine]

Aug 5, 2016 1:20:51 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

"Let Me Love You" is a good subject and one I can relate to...but it's executed so terribly by Lane. The song sounds like a top 40 song from 1998.

fwiw it's a cover of the Mario song from 2004.

[sabre14]

^ I knew it was a cover but didn't remember who or when. All I know is that is didn't turn out very good with Lane's version.

After hearing the album, I definitely agree with "For Her" as the next single. Continuation of first single and doesn't strike me as polarizing as other tracks on the record.

[sgtoddball]

I like this. I also agree with the poster up above "Girl Problems" is the best song on the Album and needs to be the next single.

[Deleted]

Aug 5, 2016 8:53:06 GMT -5 @hashtagwinning said:

Maybe, Her Own Kind of Beautiful, Saturday Night, Girl Problems, all great for what it's trying to accomplish.

May push the boundaries of pop country to the extreme, but there's a large market for it. Smart move by Chris Lane to go all in on it, not a lot of falsetto country, stands him out.

Im all about catchy/fun, and this album delivers on it. If I want something deep, I'll go read a book.

You could also just listen to pop radio too

[carriekins]

Aug 5, 2016 12:46:57 GMT -5 @hashtagwinning said:

Aug 5, 2016 12:20:23 GMT -5 @nickv1025 said:

You could also just listen to pop radio too

You could also turn on a texas country/traditional country/oldies country station.

Many people don't have access to those on a regular basis. And if they do have access, then I'm sure they're listening. But if you're looking for shallow music, pop is generally where you want to look. God forbid anybody want some diversity on country radio.

[Deleted]

Aug 5, 2016 18:36:18 GMT -5 @hashtagwinning said:

I shouldn't be told to go listen to pop if I like an artist who is considered country. Chris Lane had a great song(a song many on here may get behind) in Broken Windshield View that was pretty much ignored. He comes back out of nowhere with Fix and it's a massive hit. All that does is show the current state of country music, if you don't like it, that's fine, but no need to start stuff with those who do. I shouldn't have to defend myself for liking a certain artist. Yeah the cool thing on many forums is to hate on Chris Lane, hate on Thomas Rhett, and wonder how in the world people like these guys, but guess what, the majority do! It sells, it works, if anything the people who don't like it are the oddballs.

The older I get the less I'll probably like this music, but for now, I like it. When I'm over 30 and want more introspective songs with deeper meaning and less enthusiastic instrumentation, I'll probably be like the minority. The majority of listeners, for the most part, from high school through 20s, love this music.

There's a reason a Chris Stapleton is a flop on radio and everything a Thomas Rhett/Luke Bryan releases turns to gold. Since you're the minority, you should try and adapt by finding a way to listen to your own music/finding a different country station. Not sure where everyone lives but I know I've got 2 todays country and a traditional on basic radio. Both today's country stations are a decent mix, yeah you'll get some chris lane, but it'll happen.

Anyways, back to the listening party. Hopefully this didn't insult anybody, not the intention. It's just annoying when you give some positive comments about a today's country artist, and it turns into a debate. My criteria is fun and catchy, I completely respect your criteria.

Ok I was understanding what you were saying until, you said "There's a reason Chris Stapleton is a flop on radio". As many have noted Chris Stapleton's sales are really great as he's still selling 15k-20k a week. Chris Lane might get that opening week but then he'll be tumbling down quickly in sales and probably having sales like Michael Ray, Canaan Smith, Granger Smith, LoCash, and Jana Kramer with their latest albums.

Also "Fix" isn't a massive hit at all, really not that much of a hit at all. Outside of "You Look Like I Need A Drink" by Justin Moore, Chris Lane has the worst sales in the Top 10 as he is just barely inside the iTunes all genre Top 100. It's only made it to #65 on the all genre Billboard Hot 100, which is awful for a song about to hit #1.

[Deleted]

But @hashtagwinning, Stapleton is struggling at radio because they are butthurt about him being popular without their help.

Chris Lane is not selling. "Fix" is pushing #1 and its sales are average, at best. His album is being beat out by a guy nobody has ever heard of on no label at all. Not to mention it's being sold at a discount price.

People want to hear Stapleton. Radio wants to play Lane. It's that simple. The numbers speak for themselves.

[dm2081]

Aug 5, 2016 18:36:18 GMT -5 @hashtagwinning said:

The older I get the less I'll probably like this music, but for now, I like it. When I'm over 30 and want more introspective songs with deeper meaning and less enthusiastic instrumentation, I'll probably be like the minority. The majority of listeners, for the most part, from high school through 20s, love this music.

There's a reason a Chris Stapleton is a flop on radio and everything a Thomas Rhett/Luke Bryan releases turns to gold. Since you're the minority, you should try and adapt by finding a way to listen to your own music/finding a different country station. Not sure where everyone lives but I know I've got 2 todays country and a traditional on basic radio. Both today's country stations are a decent mix, yeah you'll get some chris lane, but it'll happen.

Anyways, back to the listening party. Hopefully this didn't insult anybody, not the intention. It's just annoying when you give some positive comments about a today's country artist, and it turns into a debate. My criteria is fun and catchy, I completely respect your criteria.

You really contradicted yourself with the bold statements though.  The majority has spoken, and Chris Stapleton is a star.  Radio doesn't need to acknowledge him for him to shine.  When all is said and done, Stapleton's Traveller album will probably outsell Girl Problems by about 25-40x (I'm being generous and assuming Girl Problems can sell about 50k when all is said and done).  Both are debut albums.  Clearly those who like Chris Lane over Chris Stapleton are in the minority, otherwise Lane would be able to sell way more than Stapleton right?  Everybody has the right to purchase music freely, and the overwhelming majority are purchasing Stapleton's music.  He's selling more than Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, you name them.  So when you imply that the fan's desire should be met, radio should be playing Stapleton way more than they play Lane.

[bboat11]

Aug 5, 2016 23:50:10 GMT -5 @hashtagwinning said:

Stapleton completely dropped off after Tennessee Whiskey, he's been digging and digging for a follow up song to be appreciated, nowhere to be found. Nowhere to Blame, Parachute, Lets all get stoned, still searching. Good album, but it doesn't translate to the radio audience.

It's radio appeal/music streaming>CD sales

Honestly, I'm not even sure what we're arguing, Chris Lane is a fun musician, not a great artist. I just don't think we're going to see eye to eye with this.

Who is more talented/more of a genius/wonderful-Stapleton definitely

I'm just saying Chris Lane is doing what country radio wants him to do, and that's create catchy fun songs. That is what works on radio, and that is what record labels care about most. If you flip on a radio what are you most likely to hear, Fix or a chris stapleton song? It's Fix. Why is that? If the people want to hear stapleton, then why is Chris Lane being played on a radio that people are listening to? I'm just not getting it, that doesn't add up.
I've been drinking sorry if this is all over the place.

Honestly, I read the original comment from @nickv1025 about how you could listen to pop radio as a joke... Before he made that comment, you said, "Im all about catchy/fun, and this album delivers on it. If I want something deep, I'll go read a book." So him saying, "You could also just listen to pop radio too" was a jab at the current state of pop radio, playing into stereotypes that pop is typically where you find songs that are not deep while country is where you find songs that really make you think and feel something. It was a jab at pop radio and the current state of country music, not a jab at you or your listening preferences.

His comment also very effectively displayed the irony about an artist like Chris Lane's music being used to represent the country genre when it does tend to pander more towards a stereotypical pop audience.

So unless you completely center every aspect of your existence around your preference for catchy/fun pop-influenced songs that also happen to be played on country radio, there's really no reason to assume his comment was a personal attack.

Now, to comment on the post that I quoted, your assertion that radio appeal and streaming is greater than single sales is completely subjective. It is comments like that which are causing people to disagree with you, making this feel like an argument when you are honestly just sharing your opinions. Radio play, streaming, and sales are all super important aspects of the industry, and as far as I know Stapleton and Lane have both been successful on 2 of the 3. To argue that one artist is better than the other simply because they get more radio play is hard to justify when the other artist is completely trouncing the other in sales. Radio DOES play Chris Lane because he does what radio wants him to do, but it seems that lately there has been a growing gap between what radio wants artists to do and what the fans want the artists to do. That gap is what allowed an artist like Chris Stapleton to become immensely popular despite having very limited radio presence. So it is no longer valid to assume that just because an artist does exactly what radio wants, they are also representative of what the average country music consumer wants to listen to.

[dm2081]

Aug 5, 2016 23:50:10 GMT -5 @hashtagwinning said:

Stapleton completely dropped off after Tennessee Whiskey, he's been digging and digging for a follow up song to be appreciated, nowhere to be found. Nowhere to Blame, Parachute, Lets all get stoned, still searching. Good album, but it doesn't translate to the radio audience.

So in your opinion, going Gold ("Nobody To Blame", the official single after "Tennessee Whiskey", and more than twice the amount "Fix" sold as of May 1st), is more successful than "Fix"?  Or in your world is selling considerably less records a better sign of success?

[Deleted]

Aug 6, 2016 9:48:49 GMT -5 @hashtagwinning said:

In regards to Stapleton, I'm focusing on what you're most likely to hear when turning the radio on. Perhaps I don't quite understand something about the industry, but I thought radio stations play what people WANT to hear. It seems the majority of popular songs are upbeat, catchy, fun. I can't imagine radio playing these songs just for the hell of it, the majority of listeners must WANT to hear it. The minority must be the people who don't. Perhaps Stapleton was a risky example for me to use, but other than him, how many other traditional sounding artists are played? Why doesn't a Mo Pitney style get played on the radio if THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO HEAR. You might want to hear, but people in general must not want to. From what I see, people want to hear Chris Lane, Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan, Dierks etc.

Raylatch: What makes Chris Lane shallow, but not Dierks Bentley? Drunk on a plane/somewhere on a beach/song with a different genre singer in different for girls. How is Chris Lane so much more hatable by you guys? Is it the falsetto voice? I'm trying to understand why me putting some positive feedback on Chris Lane, led to this point. Why is Chris Lane so much worse than the country singers everyone else likes on here?

How else do you interpret "You could just listen to pop radio too", in other words, don't listen to country, if catchy and fun is what you want. Not sure how I'm interpreting that wrong? I'm discussing the country genre, if you don't like what it is, that's your problem. It's possible I'm somehow reading that comment wrong, but to me, it sounds like an attack on my music taste.

Either way I shouldn't have to explain myself or justify positive comments for "Girl Problems". You can nitpick the Chris Stapleton comments I made, but it doesn't change the fact artists like him are far and in between on the radio. If people wanted to hear a bunch of artists like him, believe me, RADIO WOULD PLAY IT ALL DAY LONG. 

Well unless you think there's some widespread conspiracy to play music people don't like....

Ok, but by using your logic that people want to hear Chris Lane. I can guarntee you there are 3 and 4 others that want to for every one person that wants to hear Chris Lane.

Also why doesn't Mo Pitney? Simple he's on Curb Records, a radio label that has very little pull with radio. If there's another traditional artist radio should play is Kacey Musgraves as her sales are really great and people obviously want to hear singers like Kacey Musgraves and Chris Stapleton.

Where in my statement did I say Chris Lane was shallow? All I said is I doubt his album sells very well and Chris Stapleton will probably be outselling Chris Lane a month from now in weekly sales at the latest.

Also the whole Chris Lane hatable thing made me laugh. I'm not a fan of his music, but I can see the appeal. There are plenty of other artists on this forum these guys don't like. Artists like Old Dominion, Sam Hunt, Kelsea Ballerini, Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan all get their fare share of hatred.

It wasn't the fact you were positive about Chris Lane, it was the fact that you said "If I want something deep I'll read a book", naturally that gets people going as pop music is more known for the uptempo nature and country music is more known for story songs or honky tonk upbeat songs with instruments like fiddles, steel guitar, banjo and other instruments.

[dm2081]

Aug 6, 2016 9:48:49 GMT -5 @hashtagwinning said:

In regards to Stapleton, I'm focusing on what you're most likely to hear when turning the radio on. Perhaps I don't quite understand something about the industry, but I thought radio stations play what people WANT to hear. It seems the majority of popular songs are upbeat, catchy, fun. I can't imagine radio playing these songs just for the hell of it, the majority of listeners must WANT to hear it. The minority must be the people who don't. Perhaps Stapleton was a risky example for me to use, but other than him, how many other traditional sounding artists are played? Why doesn't a Mo Pitney style get played on the radio if THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO HEAR. You might want to hear, but people in general must not want to. From what I see, people want to hear Chris Lane, Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan, Dierks etc.

You keep dancing around my point though.  If everybody would rather hear these guys, outside of Luke Bryan in this group, why aren't any of them outselling Stapleton?  If people wanted to hear them more, wouldn't they be inclined to actually purchase their music more?  I'm not trying to bother you or change your opinion on anything, but I'm just trying to point out the flaw in your initial thinking.

[Deleted]

Well, glad to know I am not the only Chris Lane fan around here, hashtagwinning! <3

I loved his album. Most songs are to my liking, but I am still in love with "Her Own Kind of Beautiful". I hope it becomes a single later on.

It's always bothersome when someone tries to quote artists to prove they like deep music. I love my share of those, but I always am drawn to catchy pop music. With that said, I think the real great pop musicians, work outside the mainstream, making everyone think that people who like pop are fans of Britney, Selena, Nicki, Katy or others (to me). I am repeating myself here, but I wish there was a country-pop radio format, so artists like Chris Lane would have a place to be heard. I find it funny, so I don't get bothered when pop leaning artists are played in country radio. But I suppose that's a reason why artists like Sheryl Crow or Jewel turn to country seeing how their past home (pop) is being saturated with these singers that offer the same every time they release something. Ok, I am going waaaay off topic, sorry!

Hopefully soon, artists like Chris or Thomas will be discussed here on the merits of their music (I think they have fine music) instead of being bashed as an introduction like "Thomas is so pop, he doesn't belong in country. And his music sucks". Would be much better if people finally said "Ok, Thomas and Chris are here to stay, so I'll judge their music on how good it is, instead of how un-country it is"

[bboat11]

Well I personally feel like most of the time people like Thomas Rhett and Chris Lane DO get judged based on the quality of their music around here. I mean, I listen to songs like "T Shirt", "Vacation", and "Fix" and then I completely understand and expect the level of disgust that people seem to feel towards the songs The thing with those songs is, you could put every country instrument in the forefront and give those songs to Reba, and I STILL would not like them because they are just not good to me melodically or lyrically.

I do agree that Chris Lane has a lot of trash talk thrown his way for being un-country, but I 100% believe that people would say the same things about Carrie Underwood if she were to have recorded "Fix". And of course there will always be artists that record songs like that and people who love listening to songs like that! I am just highly skeptical that people on Pulse give songs like "Fix" an unfair opinion just because it is by Chris Lane, or "Vacation" just because it is by Thomas Rhett, etc.

ETA: I'm not saying that Thomas Rhett and Chris Lane record "bad" music. I am saying that it is very easy for me to understand why many of their recent songs are met with a certain level of resistance among large portions of the country community.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I love their music, but realize most people don't like them. I just try to like what I like and not start arguments :)

[robenglund]

Aug 4, 2016 23:40:45 GMT -5 maine said:

I unashamedly really like this album. I feel like if he didn't lead off with "Fix", this would be better received. "Maybe" is so good.

I'm not sure if any other song on the album would have been better received given how boundary pushing all of the songs are. "Fix" is definitely one of the more tolerable songs though so it was definitely a good choice. For the record the song definitely grew on me and I like it for what it is, a catchy ear worm. If you ask me, the most country sounding song is probably the title track. There's real drums!!!

I totally agree with you regarding "Maybe". Before I listen to a song/album, I always go through the iTunes 90 second previews and "Maybe" was definitely one that caught my ear. The melody, especially in the chorus, is so damn catchy. The song isn't as poppy as some other songs on the album such as "Who's It Gonna Be". Would love if "Maybe" was a single.

For what it's worth a lot of the songwriters who are credited I've never even heard of. The more country sounding songs have songwriters I know. The poppier sounding ones I've never heard of. Interesting correlation . I would love to and are curious to hear Josh Thompson's version of "Back To Me". "Girl Problems" features two guys that seem to pump out hits now a days. Chris DeStefano and Ashley Gorley.

[maine]

"Maybe" is definitely my choice for second single. If it is indeed "For Her", I can live with that; that's more middle tier for me, but I still like it.

Singles should go: "For Her", "Maybe", then "Girl Problems".

[sabre14]

"For Her" is the next single. They're making the lyric video for it with fans being asked to help with the process according to a recent tweet by Lane. The Highway of course jumped on it a few weeks ago.

[Deleted]

I love "For Her", and to me, it sounds more country than Fix. Still, I don't like when artists release EP's first, and then, add ALL of those songs into the album. By the time it is released, you know half the album. And then, to release a song that was included in the EP is too much. I'd rather they chose one of the new songs... (or Her Own Kind of Beautiful)

[maine]

Aug 7, 2016 22:43:56 GMT -5 @xfer said:

I love "For Her", and to me, it sounds more country than Fix. Still, I don't like when artists release EP's first, and then, add ALL of those songs into the album. By the time it is released, you know half the album. And then, to release a song that was included in the EP is too much. I'd rather they chose one of the new songs... (or Her Own Kind of Beautiful)

fwiw two songs ("Cool" and "Stolen Car") weren't included on the album.

EPs are used for new artists because labels don't want to sink too much money into them for their first release, and an EP is a more cost-efficient way of getting their artist's feet wet rather than throwing them right in with an album.

If the EP doesn't work? They can drop them without losing too much money. If the EP does work? Let's make an album!

[Deleted]

Ah yes, I was and still am, a bit bitter that Cool wasn't included. Stolen Car, however, I can live without. It's no excuse, but when I posted that (for some reason) I was thinking of Canaan Smith and his EP lol

And thanks for the info! I have heard EP's of new country artists, and many never go anywhere :(

[maine]

Aug 7, 2016 23:02:47 GMT -5 @xfer said:

Ah yes, I was and still am, a bit bitter that Cool wasn't included. Stolen Car, however, I can live without. It's no excuse, but when I posted that (for some reason) I was thinking of Canaan Smith and his EP lol

And thanks for the info! I have heard EP's of new country artists, and many never go anywhere :(

It's a practice that happens across pretty much every genre. Labels are using EPs more and more nowadays. I feel like most new artists go straight for EPs unless you have a huge debut single.

There's also artists that can't sell many units with an album, but do well with singles (Flo Rida comes to mind), so EPs are easier for them.

[Deleted]

Wow, after reading the previous page of this thread, all I could think was "it's only the middle of the day, but I could sure use a drink right now", lol. ;)

Thanks for keeping it (mostly) civil, though y'all.

[ryrom11]

First of all as a country album, I think this is horrible, one of the worst I've seen labeled as that probably ever. As a pop album, maybe this is better - I don't really know.

Fix is the only song I really enjoy on here. Maybe more will grow on me.

Really what I want to say is that it's simply amazing how Nashville can do a complete 180 on a guy and radio will start playing him because he sings pop music and changed his image. I don't know much about him, but looking at the guy when it was The Chris Lane Band, I feel like the label told him to get on board with this new look and sound or get out.

The stuff from when he has The Chris Lane Band is great country rock music and what I expected from the guy after I heard Broken Windshield View. I don't know how many of you listened to that before but I'm sure you can find some stuff on YouTube (More Than That, Lets Ride, Too Tennessee, Starting Tonight). For his sake I hope he's doing what he wants but to go from putting out sounds like Starting Tonight to For Her in 3 years is amazing.

I don't like to use the word sell out because I know these guys are trying to make a living and they may need to do this to go where they want to go in the industry. But man, I don't know any other way to describe it.

[Deleted]

Does anyone have a midweek number from HDD? I see 3,785.

Just wondering how close it'll be to the 5,000 I predicted that everyone laughed at.