Most inconsistent artists

[Deleted]

Who are the most inconsistent artists in country today? Like they can either make one of the best songs ever or one of the worst songs ever.

The biggest example IMO is Luke Bryan. How is this the same person that made songs like Roller Coaster and Country Girl Shake It For Me?

[recordyear]

Chris Janson: Best being Drunk Girl or Holdin' Her, worst being Fix a Drink or Buy Me a Boat.
Kip Moore: Best being Guitar Man, worst being Something about a Truck.

[trustypepper]

Cole Swindell immediately pops into my mind.

[Deleted]

Thomas Rhett is another one IMO.

[lady𝓐fan]

Sam Hunt, he has some pretty good songs on "Montevallo" but BLAB is a flaming pile of trash. In terms of production, he's a mess.

[.indulgecountry]

Blake Shelton. We occasionally get some really great ones thrown in there, but you gotta wade/suffer through a lot of vanilla dreck to mind-numbingly bad tunes in between. Luke Bryan is the same way, too.

Lady Antebellum is also wildly inconsistent with their material, too.

[zaclord 🌈]

The biggest examples of this, imo, are Eric Church, Luke Bryan, Little Big Town, and Kenny Chesney. But several others qualify too.

Luke Bryan is a great example for this. He's been mostly good lately, but it wasn't long ago we had songs like "Move" and "Kick the Dust Up". Little Big Town also comes to mind. I like almost everything they put out, but to greatly varying degrees. Going from "Better Man" to "When Someone Stops Loving You" was a huge step down, imo.

Blake used to be inconsistent. But in the past several years he's been consistently terrible or at least boring.

Brett Eldredge has pretty inconsistent (although haven't cared for anything from his newest era)

Jason Aldean has been pretty consistently great lately, but he usually just fluctuates between awful and good

Kenny Chesney is all over the place with me. He has some of my all-time favorite songs (I Go Back, I Lost It, There Goes My Life) to some of my all-time least favorites (Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven, Pirate Flag, Feels Like a Rockstar)

Lee Brice either hits big (I Drive Your Truck, A Woman Like You) or is either incredibly dull or just unlistenable (That Don't Sound Like You, Parking Lot Party)

Brad Paisley used to be extremely consistent, but since the This Is Country Music era he has been very hit or miss.

Eric Church is extremely hit or miss with me too. He's usually never awful (except "The Outsiders"), but he will frequently release songs that do not interest me in the slightest (Round Here Buzz, Like a Wrecking Ball, Like Jesus Does, Cold One)

Billy Currington, Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, and Josh Turner would all make my list as well if you look at their careers as a whole

[raylatch98]

I know her career is pretty fresh and new. But I find Maren Morris so far to be pretty inconsistent single wise. Her debut song and "I Could Use A Love Song" are both great. But the other 2 songs imo are horrible.

Another artist that came to mind for me is Cole Swindell. His first album era was garbage song after garbage. But his second era and the beginning of his third has kind of balanced it out for me

[countrymusicjunkie]

Trace Adkins has been consistently inconsistent throughout his entire career. He's had some good songs and even a few great ones but he's also had a lot of just plain awful ones.

[StillTheSame]

Aug 12, 2018 12:57:07 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Blake Shelton. We occasionally get some really great ones thrown in there, but you gotta wade/suffer through a lot of vanilla dreck to mind-numbingly bad tunes in between. Luke Bryan is the same way, too.

Lady Antebellum is also wildly inconsistent with their material, too.

I probably like a couple from them that others would consider vanilla, but for the most part; you took the words right out my mouth.

[someguy]

Toby Keith for me. Hard to believe that he can go from stuff like "Who's That Man" and "Should've Been A Cowboy" to "Courtesy Of The Red, White and Blue" and "Shut Up And Hold On".

[austin]

Lady Antebellum is a good one, I agree completely. They have some amazing material and others that I easily pass on. I agree with Blake, too.

But what about Carrie? She can combine that beautiful voice with the right material (Two Black Cadillacs, Before He Cheats, Dirty Laundry, Just A Dream) or bore you to death (Mama's Song, Cry Pretty) or try and belt you to death (Blown Away, So Small). Overall, I wish she would stop writing and just poach the best songs Nashville has in the archive, her output would be 100X better.

[Ten Pound Hammer]

I've mentioned before that Sara Evans can't seem to make up her mind how traditional or poppy she wants to be, but at least the overall quality is somewhat consistent. I like "Suds in the Bucket" and "Cheatin'" just as much as I like "Slow Me Down", "Born to Fly", and especially "Backseat of a Greyhound Bus".

[raylatch98]

Aug 13, 2018 14:19:02 GMT -5 Ten Pound Hammer said:

I've mentioned before that Sara Evans can't seem to make up her mind how traditional or poppy she wants to be, but at least the overall quality is somewhat consistent. I like "Suds in the Bucket" and "Cheatin'" just as much as I like "Slow Me Down", "Born to Fly", and especially "Backseat of a Greyhound Bus".

I actually really agree with this post (runs away and hides)

[phil1996]

Jake Owen. He can't seem to choose between beachy stuff and his classic sound.

Lee Brice. His voice has aged like I've never heard a voice age before. Not that it's a bad thing, but the sound is so different.

Eric Church and Kip Moore went from country crooners to rock stars.

Randy Houser went traditional country, to mainstream country, to pop country (which may have ended his radio career) and now back to traditional again.

[Deleted]

Surprised that Florida Georgia Line has not gotten a mention yet.

[.indulgecountry]

Aug 14, 2018 10:40:58 GMT -5 @walker9 said:

Surprised that Florida Georgia Line has not gotten a mention yet.

Probably because most people on here consider them consistently terrible. :kii:


They've gradually gotten better and better with each album cycle for me personally so I guess looking at their career as a whole I'd consider them inconsistent, but lately I feel like they've been mostly good ("Smooth" is their only recent single that was a miss imo) and they were pretty consistently awful when they started out, rather than always bouncing back and forth between good and bad.