New Country Releases Rankdown Thread

[.indulgecountry]

While the last few songs were a bit polarizing, Tenille Arts kind of trends the other way: most participants seemed to be rather indifferent on this one as the overwhelming majority of ranks for "Next Best Thing" landed squarely in the teens. bboat11 loses a #2 rank, which came from our last submission and helped push this one up several positions as we crossed the finish line for February. A pair of #21s were its lowest ranks, which is comparatively tame.

[Darkest Hour]

17. Weaker side of radio fodder mostly because of that laughable title, but it's stil kind of decent.

16. The bluegrass-country-rock version could work but with a limited vocal range and not so powerful vocal, Dierks Bentley is not the one to sell it. Pride is a better cover in this vein

15. Stephen Sanchez moment for Mason Ramsey, but with countrypolitan being a richer sound in retro realm, the music offers more to listen to even though the songwriting is really basic.

14. Now I don't know why her music regressed so much. Think the label is chasing a radio hit instead of more artistic route and the sad thing is that the songs don't really stand out on radio either, so it feels like a moot point.

[.indulgecountry]

13. "Texas Hold 'Em" - Beyoncé

Total: 198

tim : 1
.indulgecountry : 4
taylor is terrified : 4
zaclord 🌈 : 5
castleoblivion26 : 6
SHOOTER : 6
wavey. : 9
zack97 : 17
nuggie99 : 17
Darkest Hour : 17
🌺CountryLineDancer : 19
kw9461 : 22
LBTrocks : 23
bboat11 : 23
George Strait Junkie : 25

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Songs Remaining}
16 Carriages
American Girl
Bless Your Heart
Country's Cool Again
Deeper Well
God & Country
Had It All
Hard to Read
Hits Home
A Little Goes a Long Way
Two Night Stands
Use Me
What I Couldn't Forget

[.indulgecountry]

This ain't Texas...
The first of 2 Beyoncé cuts in the set leaves. "Texas Hold 'Em" put up a good fight and spent a lot of time in the top 10 for the submission process, but a quartet of bottom 5s sunk its chances of staying in there. OTOH, it received seven top 10 ranks, including tim's #1.

[.indulgecountry]

12. "God & Country" - Anne Wilson

Total: 191

tim : 3
bboat11 : 6
🌺CountryLineDancer : 7
.indulgecountry : 11
castleoblivion26 : 11
kw9461 : 12
nuggie99 : 12
LBTrocks : 13
Darkest Hour : 13
George Strait Junkie : 13
zack97 : 15
wavey. : 17
taylor is terrified : 18
SHOOTER : 20
zaclord 🌈 : 20

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Songs Remaining}
16 Carriages
American Girl
Bless Your Heart
Country's Cool Again
Deeper Well
Had It All
Hard to Read
Hits Home
A Little Goes a Long Way
Two Night Stands
Use Me
What I Couldn't Forget

[taylor is terrified]

THIS AIN’T TEXAS, AIN’T NO HOLD ‘EM

[.indulgecountry]

Another pre-release cut from Anne Wilson's foray into the country market with Rebel, "God & Country" comes up shy of a top 10 finish by less than 5 points here. She received the biggest pocket of support just outside the top 10 on most of the participant's lists, so this finish right in the middle of the rankdown set seems pretty fitting, however, as roughly half of us put this between #11-13. tim loses another high with his #3 best rank here, though nobody loses a bottom 5.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

"God & Country" is a solid effort from Anne. Good chorus melody. I feel like it could have done better than Rain In The Rearview as a single.

[.indulgecountry]

May 6, 2024 20:14:34 GMT -5 🌺CountryLineDancer said:

"God & Country" is a solid effort from Anne. Good chorus melody. I feel like it could have done better than Rain In The Rearview as a single.

I hope they try again with something else because Rebel is honestly a great album imo! She also has quite the fanbase and the album pulled in better numbers upon debut than many country stars can get these days.

[.indulgecountry]

11. "16 Carriages" - Beyoncé

Total: 190

SHOOTER : 1
wavey. : 2
zack97 : 2
taylor is terrified : 2
tim : 6
Darkest Hour : 6
zaclord 🌈 : 7
.indulgecountry : 9
nuggie99 : 15
🌺CountryLineDancer : 21
castleoblivion26 : 22
George Strait Junkie : 24
LBTrocks : 24
bboat11 : 24
kw9461 : 25

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Songs Remaining}
Bless Your Heart
Country's Cool Again
Deeper Well
Had It All
Hard to Read
Hits Home
A Little Goes a Long Way
Two Night Stands
Use Me
What I Couldn't Forget

[.indulgecountry]

Finishing less than 5 points from securing a top 10 finish, Beyoncé is eliminated as "16 Carriages" bows out now. Only one person who submitted -- nuggie99 -- didn't put this either in their top 10 or bottom 5, indicating a pretty polarizing opinion on this one. SHOOTER is the latest to lose their #1, and Bey put up a trio of #2s to bolster her numbers, but a total of 6(!!) bottom 5s sunk this one.

[.indulgecountry]

The February top 10:

Bless Your Heart - Callista Clark
Country's Cool Again - Lainey Wilson
Deeper Well - Kacey Musgraves
Had It All - Gabby Barrett
Hard to Read - Gabby Barrett
Hits Home - Walker County
A Little Goes a Long Way - The Castellows
Two Night Stands - Kylie Morgan
Use Me - Zach Top
What I Couldn't Forget - Drake Milligan

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}George Strait Junkie :
zaclord 🌈 :
zack97 :
taylor is terrified :
nuggie99 :
tim :
🌺CountryLineDancer :
castleoblivion26 :
Darkest Hour :
SHOOTER :
wavey. :
kw9461 :
LBTrocks :
bboat11 :
.indulgecountry :

[Darkest Hour]

Not even the biggest fan of these two Beyoncé songs but both out before Gabby Barrett songs...?

[SHOOTER]

I can see how THE is polarizing but 16C is such a beautiful song to my ears. Shameful.

[Kanenrá:ke]

May 8, 2024 1:13:56 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

I can see how THE is polarizing but 16C is such a beautiful song to my ears. Shameful.

While I didn't vote in this round my take personally is the exact opposite. Love THE but 16C is a pass for me. It just hasn't clicked with me.

[.indulgecountry]

May 8, 2024 10:25:53 GMT -5 Kanenrá:ke said:

May 8, 2024 1:13:56 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

I can see how THE is polarizing but 16C is such a beautiful song to my ears. Shameful.

While I didn't vote in this round my take personally is the exact opposite. Love THE but 16C is a pass for me. It just hasn't clicked with me.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I love both, but "Texas Hold 'Em" is the one that lives rent free in my mind. I enjoy "16 Carriages" and find it beautiful, but it's not the standout that keeps me coming back that THE is.

[.indulgecountry]

10. "Hard to Read" - Gabby Barrett

Total: 187

.indulgecountry : 2
SHOOTER : 4
tim : 4
LBTrocks : 6
bboat11 : 10
zack97 : 10
taylor is terrified : 11
🌺CountryLineDancer : 12
wavey. : 13
kw9461 : 13
nuggie99 : 19
castleoblivion26 : 20
George Strait Junkie : 20
zaclord 🌈 : 21
Darkest Hour : 22

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Songs Remaining}
Bless Your Heart
Country's Cool Again
Deeper Well
Had It All
Hits Home
A Little Goes a Long Way
Two Night Stands
Use Me
What I Couldn't Forget

[.indulgecountry]

Darkest Hour gets his wish here. 🙄

One of two Gabby Barrett cuts chosen to represent the release of Chapter & Verse falls: "Hard to Read" bows out first and secures a top 10 finish by a mere 3-point margin, a victory it achieved with the final submission courtesy of bboat11. I lose my #2 rank here, and five others lose a top 10 as well. Only five posters ranked it lower than #13 on their list, indicating it was pretty favorable overall. Personally I think this pretty damn close to modern country music perfection melodically, instrumentally, and vocally.

[Darkest Hour]

Hard to Read just doesn't make sense to me as a song. It tries to make "revolutionary" statement about the unpredictability of a person in a relationship but that sounds like any other relationships to me? A more playful/flirty delivery would be nice but she sounds so serious there. I guess a similar example would be Beautiful Crazy but at least that song is better musically to me.

[nuggie99]

So far behind! Been swamped at work and what all.
January:
Desperate: Victim of the picker. This was a perfectly fine song. It shook out and I stared at my rank down list for a while and wanted to move it higher but didn't want to move anything lower. (and I think it would make her Desperate, but I'm old and married, so what do I know.

4-1. These were all good, pretty traditional songs that I ranked pretty highly.

February

Bulletproof: I like Nate Smith (still find the old 10 week number one an oddity though) and I liked this well enough.

Holy Smokes: This is standard BZ fare, which is ok, but not my favorite. Church Parking Lots remind me of Jamey Johnson though.

Purple Irises: I heard some flavors of LANCO (Born to Love You) and I Saw the Light by Hal Ketchum (or Todd Rundgren) but was overall too poppy for my tastes.

Heaven are you Listening?: Didn't do much for me.

Out Here in It: I've always liked Tracy Lawrence. I am A and also not A is a longtime trope is Country Music, and I liked it here.

Perfectly Lonely: This was good, probably got higher because it was Parker than it would have if it was someone else.

Matchmaker: This was interesting. Reminded my of the plot to Good Luck Chuck (which I've never seen but have read the plot for... go figure)

This Truck Still Misses You: You left and the truck stayed is overdone, but Scoot did a nice job with it. I need to dive deeper into the Scoot catalog.

American Girl: This is a pretty good cover. I always liked me some Tom Petty over in that country adjacent rock place with Bob Seger and the Doobies and whoever you want to put in there.

Blue Over You: This put me in a good mood. reminded me a little of Lonesome Town by Ricky Nelson and gave vibes from like Sonny James and that generation. Really liked it.

Next Best Thing: I ranked this right next to the Callista Clark because they were basically the same theme. Interesting that the other ranked some much higher. Just kind meh, though.

Texas Hold 'Em: This is catchy, there's no doubt. My first impression was that it sounded like a fake country sound that would be on the Cartoon Network or Nick if one of those characters went to a country place. Never really shook that. I decided to give it fair shake and just read through the lyrics. So, put your keys up, we're going dancing ok... there's a tornado coming. Wait what? The lyrics seem to be a bunch of cliches just strung together. Lexus rhymes with Texas, but it's not a country car. There's a reason pickups are cliche. We dream of Cadillac's yes. I'm even go as far as Maren's Mitsubishi, but no Lexuses..,. Lexi. And the only other use of photogenic I can think of is Dumas Walker. I did bump it upin the end though, because, sure, it's country.

God and Country: This was pretty good. Anne is going to ride that CCM Country line hard and I'm enjoying it.

16 Carriages: I liked this better than Texas Hold 'Em. It's alright. Lots of country songs about the road.

Head to Read: I'm usually pretty high on Gabby Barret but this didn't do much for me.

And I'm caught up.

[.indulgecountry]

9. "Bless Your Heart" - Callista Clark

Total: 179

SHOOTER : 3
bboat11 : 4
LBTrocks : 7
wavey. : 8
kw9461 : 9
taylor is terrified : 9
🌺CountryLineDancer : 9
Darkest Hour : 10
George Strait Junkie : 12
zaclord 🌈 : 13
castleoblivion26 : 14
tim : 17
.indulgecountry : 17
nuggie99 : 22
zack97 : 25

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Songs Remaining}
Country's Cool Again
Deeper Well
Had It All
Hits Home
A Little Goes a Long Way
Two Night Stands
Use Me
What I Couldn't Forget

[.indulgecountry]

Callista Clark didn't get too far with "Diamonds" late last year, but "Bless Your Heart" moves the needle a bit more for Pulsers as she manages a top 10 finish here. She was looking at a peak just on the outside until a run of top 10s pushed her through the ranks, as six of her eight top 10s came from the last six lists that I received. Only two posters slotted this bottom 5, though one of them is zack97's #25.

[.indulgecountry]

8. "Use Me" - Zach Top

Total: 170

kw9461 : 2
bboat11 : 3
George Strait Junkie : 4
nuggie99 : 4
zack97 : 8
zaclord 🌈 : 9
SHOOTER : 9
LBTrocks : 9
tim : 13
Darkest Hour : 14
wavey. : 15
castleoblivion26 : 17
.indulgecountry : 20
taylor is terrified : 20
🌺CountryLineDancer : 23

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Songs Remaining}
Country's Cool Again
Deeper Well
Had It All
Hits Home
A Little Goes a Long Way
Two Night Stands
What I Couldn't Forget

[.indulgecountry]

Zach Top jumped onto people's radars at the top of the year with "Sounds Like the Radio," an uptempo ditty that transports the listener back to the fun songs of the 90s. Well, the time machine works for weepers too because he delivers that slice of 90s nostalgia with "Use Me." 🌺CountryLineDancer is the lone bottom 5 rank, and while I was one of the next lowest rankers, I still think this is fabulous. Half of the participant pool had this top 10, including a quartet of top 5s, with kw9461's #2 the highest rank.

[.indulgecountry]

7. "Country's Cool Again" - Lainey Wilson

Total: 164

castleoblivion26 : 2
George Strait Junkie : 3
LBTrocks : 3
wavey. : 5
kw9461 : 5
.indulgecountry : 7
tim : 7
SHOOTER : 10
Darkest Hour : 11
bboat11 : 11
nuggie99 : 13
taylor is terrified : 14
zack97 : 24
🌺CountryLineDancer : 24
zaclord 🌈 : 25

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Songs Remaining}
Deeper Well
Had It All
Hits Home
A Little Goes a Long Way
Two Night Stands
What I Couldn't Forget

[.indulgecountry]

For a select few, Lainey Wilson's "Country's Cool Again" toes the line too far into "novelty" territory, yielding three bottom 5 2 ranks, including known Lainey dissenter zaclord 🌈's last place. That said, everyone else had this either top 10 or at least very close to it, including a #2 from castleoblivion26 and a quartet of additional top 5s. It's definitely not one of Lainey's best by any stretch, but it's a fun bop from squarely within her wheelhouse.

[nuggie99]

Oops, I skipped As You Are. Tenille had a song called Come As You Are that I liked a lot better.

Bless Your Heart: see Next Best Thing

Use Me: Love this. Zach Top does it how I like it.

Country's Cool Again: implies that Country is cool now and it was also cool sometime in the past. Neither of these is true. (I kid!) This is OK I guess. Explicit tags make me sad. (Forgot to mention that on Texas Hold Em. But y'all should know me by now)

[.indulgecountry]

I need y'all's lists for March STAT. We still have like... 5-6 more of you that I'm expecting to drop one that hasn't yet, and I'm almost wrapped with the February reveals so... get on it, please.

March 2024:

The Playlist: (Runtime 1 hr. 38 min.)

1. 28th of June - Megan Moroney
2. The Architect - Kacey Musgraves
3. Barely a Two Lane Road - Catie Offerman
4. Bodyguard - Beyoncé
5. Called Crazy - Kassi Ashton
6. Cardinal - Kacey Musgraves
7. Color up My World - Ben Rector, Hailey Whitters
8. Country Gold - Anne Wilson, Jordan Davis
9. Darlin' - Jenna Paulette
10. Fiddle in the Band - Kane Brown
11. Funny Girl - RaeLynn
12. The Georgia in Me - Cyndi Thomson
13. Highway Towns - Sykamore
14. If I Could Call - David Nail
15. If I Had a Lover - Dylan Gossett
16. I Like Trains - Ashley Monroe
17. I Went to College / I Went to Jail - ERNEST, Jelly Roll
18. Jolene - Beyoncé
19. Kiss My Boots - Brian Kelley
20. Locked Up - Sam Hunt
21. Messed up as Me - Keith Urban
22. Nicotine - Ella Langley
23. Pride - Sara Evans
24. Slow Dance - Scotty McCreery
25. Straight to My Heart - Graham Barham, Lauren Watkins
26. The Sun Don't Shine Anymore in Acapulco - William Michael Morgan
27. Tie Up - Zac Brown Band
28. What He'll Never Have - Dylan Scott
29. What She Sees in Me - Chris Young
30. Woman - Mickey Guyton

Due: Now

---

Previous Participants:
BB🌕 SHOOTER fearlessarrow DistrictTwelve lady𝓐fan someguy ClevelandRox .indulgecountry HeyHeyHey d3vin44 kw9461 Darkest Hour LBTrocks castleoblivion26 tim austin taylor is terrified George Strait Junkie Kanenrá:ke bboat11 gardyfan  Sambalada BackwoodsBarbie superdave3556  🌺CountryLineDancer bigfan101 Kris Kringle razorshark nuggie99  zaclord 🌈 kluen

Country Rankdowns Tag List:
Adrian C. 🍓 austin BB🌕 bboat11 bigfan101 taylor is terrified castleoblivion26 cedric HeyHeyHey ClevelandRox g8erboi tim LBTrocks Crimsonio Fancy fearlessarrow hydraflare .indulgecountry Leo ✔ born Kanenrá:ke The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 lady𝓐fan Mylo13 💜 RobbyFlorida someguy SwiftlySheeran Au$tin toomuchboy   Darkest Hour sabre14 kw9461 BackwoodsBarbie  George Strait Junkie smissy13

[.indulgecountry]

6. "Had It All" - Gabby Barrett

Total: 157

.indulgecountry : 1
bboat11 : 1
zack97 : 1
wavey. : 3
LBTrocks : 5
kw9461 : 8
taylor is terrified : 8
tim : 10
nuggie99 : 11
SHOOTER : 14
🌺CountryLineDancer : 15
zaclord 🌈 : 18
Darkest Hour : 19
George Strait Junkie : 19
castleoblivion26 : 24

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Songs Remaining}
Deeper Well
Hits Home
A Little Goes a Long Way
Two Night Stands
What I Couldn't Forget

[.indulgecountry]

Gabby Barrett's second entry, "Had It All," is ousted next, just shy of a top 5 finish. She seems to comfortably land in the area just inside or just outside the top 5 with most of her songs, so this shouldn't come as a surprise. That said, this is easily our most catastrophic loss so far as a whopping three #1 ranks are lost, courtesy of myself, bboat11, and zack97. Half the participant pool had this top 10, though castleoblivion26 loses his final bottom 5. For me, it's between this + "No Caller ID" by Megan Moroney for best track of 2024 thus far. Exceptional in every way imo.