New Country Releases Rankdown Thread

[tim]

About the only thing I can remember from "Drinkin' Songs" is the Oh-oh-oh line(s). There's just not much about this that is memorable otherwise and so I'll gladly take the perfect ranking!

[bboat11]

"Drinkin' Songs" was more immediate to me than MacKenzie's other song "These Days" was in our first edition of this rankdown. However, its reception was considerably worse here! While "These Days" climbed all the way up to #12 that first month, this one got stuck outside of the top 20 and hovered around #21/22 for the entire submission process! I'm guessing that fact is partly due to just how freaking strong of a month this was!

This song was pretty set on being our #21 finisher and escaping the bottom 2, until our primary #22 contender suddenly got a huge wave of support at the very end So, unlucky positioning for MacKenzie!

[bboat11]

21. "My First Car" - Meghan Patrick

Total: 278
Average: 16.35
Std Dev: 6.13


.indulgecountry - 2 ( )
superdave3556 - 8
d3vin44 - 9
George Strait Junkie - 10
SHOOTER - 12
Darkest Hour - 15
kw9461 - 17
Kanenrá:ke - 17
castleoblivion26 - 17
lady𝓐fan - 20
bboat11 - 20
HeyHeyHey - 21
tim - 21
LBTrocks - 22
fearlessarrow - 22
ClevelandRox - 22
someguy - 23


taylor is terrified

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
All The Good Ones Are
Beer Light
Better Than We Found It
Black Motorcycle
Dear Rodeo
Feeling Things
Forgetting You
Found It In You
Gone
Hell Of A View
Hold Me Back
I Can’t
I Don’t Mind
Memory I Don’t Mess With
Pink
Prettiest Wreck
Settle Me Down
Takin’ It As It Comes
We Didn’t Have Much
Without You

[.indulgecountry]

"My First Car" is a total JAM. It sounds like a late 90s/early 2000s country smash and her voice even reminds me quite a lot of Pam Tillis, which fits perfectly. This is something I crank up in the car loud. Love it and have 0 shame ranking it high. I literally have no idea how anyone dislikes this at all honestly.

[tim]

Three-for-three...I'm on a roll y'all!!!

[bboat11]

Dec 2, 2020 20:21:24 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

"My First Car" is a total JAM. It sounds like a late 90s/early 2000s country smash and her voice even reminds me quite a lot of Pam Tillis, which fits perfectly. This is something I crank up in the car loud. Love it and have 0 shame ranking it high. I literally have no idea how anyone dislikes this at all honestly.

For me it's less about disliking it specifically and more about how strong the overall list is!

[SHOOTER]

Daddy Devin does no wrong!

[d3vin44]

Dec 2, 2020 20:26:42 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

Daddy Devin does no wrong!

❤️

[bboat11]

20. "Black Motorcycle" - Kassi Ashton

Total: 276
Average: 16.24
Std Dev: 7.81 (Largest!!!)


Kanenrá:ke - 1 ( )
SHOOTER - 3
LBTrocks - 5
.indulgecountry - 6
d3vin44 - 10
ClevelandRox - 17
tim - 19
fearlessarrow - 19
castleoblivion26 - 20
George Strait Junkie - 21
superdave3556 - 22
Darkest Hour - 22
lady𝓐fan - 22
bboat11 - 22
HeyHeyHey - 22
someguy - 22
kw9461 - 23


taylor is terrified

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
All The Good Ones Are
Beer Light
Better Than We Found It
Dear Rodeo
Feeling Things
Forgetting You
Found It In You
Gone
Hell Of A View
Hold Me Back
I Can’t
I Don’t Mind
Memory I Don’t Mess With
Pink
Prettiest Wreck
Settle Me Down
Takin’ It As It Comes
We Didn’t Have Much
Without You

[SHOOTER]

"The Tractors" for Best Fans over my dead body! The bad taste and low key misogyny have jumped OUT!

[bboat11]

Look at those highest rankings compared to the trajectory graph "Black Motorcycle" was literally our consistent bottom 2 finisher....until it got three top 5s in a row from literally the final 3 people to submit Poor MacKenzie and Meghan both got shoved backwards one position lower than they had been trending at the very last second thanks to Kanenrá:ke 's last-minute #1 rank He singlehandedly pushed this song into the top 20 for the only time!

[.indulgecountry]

Everyone aside from myself, Jordy, Shooter, Devin, and Flops is CANCELLED. Literally what even are these tragic low rankings for Kassi? "Black Motorcycle" is a bop.

[Kanenrá:ke]

“Black Motorcycle” is just so...sexy honestly haha

Pretty easily her least country song yet, but for what it’s meant for I love it!

Seeing her perform it live last year had me waiting eagerly for her to release it and it was very much worth the wait!

[LBTrocks]

I do like Devin Dawson quite a bit now, and "Range Rover" is catchy enough. Overall it's not my style tho, so I couldn't rank it higher.

I literally can't remember how "Drinkin' Songs" goes lol. Just re-listened and it's OK. Catchy, but I'm not a huge fan of the production.

There's nothing I like about "My First Car" and I've tried to get into it, but musically and lyrically I really dislike it. I think if this was sang by a male artist, we'd all be dragging the lyrics for filth. Anyway, glad this was out early on. Kanenrá:ke I did listen to some of her other stuff per your request, and was underwhelmed by a fair amount of it, but I do like her voice and found at least a couple songs that I do genuinely love from her- "Walls Come Down" and "The Bad Guy"

It must be the production on "Black Motorcycle" that held this back for y'all cuz that's the only reason I can think of, the melody is AMAZING and Kassi Ashton's vocal performance was fantastic. Love this so much and she got done REALLY dirty by y'all. Aside from this being out already, which is a total travesty, this RD isn't off to too bad of a start imo.

[bboat11]

19. "Settle Me Down" - Josh Abbott Band

Total: 259
Average: 15.24
Std Dev: 4.93


tim - 6
kw9461 - 6
ClevelandRox - 7
Kanenrá:ke - 13
d3vin44 - 14
fearlessarrow - 14
George Strait Junkie - 14
castleoblivion26 - 16
lady𝓐fan - 16
bboat11 - 17
HeyHeyHey - 17
Darkest Hour - 18
LBTrocks - 19
.indulgecountry - 20
someguy - 20
SHOOTER - 21
superdave3556 - 21


taylor is terrified

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
All The Good Ones Are
Beer Light
Better Than We Found It
Dear Rodeo
Feeling Things
Forgetting You
Found It In You
Gone
Hell Of A View
Hold Me Back
I Can’t
I Don’t Mind
Memory I Don’t Mess With
Pink
Prettiest Wreck
Takin’ It As It Comes
We Didn’t Have Much
Without You

[LBTrocks]

yay PR!

I'm not a fan of Josh Abbott Band at all, the lead singer's voice is pretty putrid to my ears tbh. Also, this song is terrible.

[castleoblivion26]

cannot complain at all so far but do hope Jon Pardi's "Beer Light" goes soon. Usually like him but did not like that song. Looking at my list again I realize I under-ranked the song I have at #19 and I hope my rank doesn't drag it down too much.

[bboat11]

"Settle Me Down" isn't bad or anything, but it felt more like a background song when I first heard it. Like the type of song you could just have on in the background and not even think about it or process it.

It does seem like it will continue to grow on me though! But I am okay with it leaving this early.

[.indulgecountry]

Oh finally a song I wasn't a fan of. "Settle Me Down" was meh compared to this very strong list.

[SHOOTER]

:yawn:

[kw9461]

Josh Abbott Band isn't for everyone, but "Settle Me Down" is another really good song by them. I love how they stick to their distinct style.

[Darkest Hour]

I think my beef with Range Rover is that it sounds too much like Somewhere on a Beach, which isn't a good song to begin with. Proudction is more from bad side fo Jay Joyce also.

Yeah feel like overranked Drinkin' Songs a bit. I like the chorus at first but the reverbs start to become too prominent in subsequent listens and drown her voice a bit.

Meghan Patrick has a good voice but My First Car doesn't stand out from "I'm country as hell" theme, which is disappointing.

Can never get into Kassi Ashton despite she being one of huge Eric Church fans. Her voice has no edge at all and really cannot sell Black Motorcycle. Give it to someone like Elizabeth Cook and I bet you it will sound so much better.

The new Josh Abbott Band album is better than the pre-order singles including Settle Me Down. These few seconds of steel guitar playing being catchier than the chorus is a mess.

[tim]

Dec 2, 2020 22:03:51 GMT -5 kw9461 said:

Josh Abbott Band isn't for everyone, but "Settle Me Down" is another really good song by them. I love how they stick to their distinct style.

I’m glad to see someone else liked the song as much as I do! This was a personal request of mine that I had suggested to be added for this month as it’s a favorite of mine from their new album, but I knew it likely wouldn’t perform well as the Josh Abbott Band aren’t a Pulse favorite. I’ve been a fan of their music for a long time and it should go without saying that they are one of of the biggest acts in the Texas Country/Red Dirt genre.

[bboat11]

18. "Found It In You" - Tiera

Total: 228
Average: 13.41
Std Dev: 5.06


ClevelandRox - 5
castleoblivion26 - 6
Kanenrá:ke - 7
LBTrocks - 8
HeyHeyHey - 10
.indulgecountry - 10
lady𝓐fan - 13
someguy - 13
Darkest Hour - 14
SHOOTER - 14
d3vin44 - 16
tim - 17
fearlessarrow - 17
George Strait Junkie - 17
kw9461 - 20
superdave3556 - 20
bboat11 - 21

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
All The Good Ones Are
Beer Light
Better Than We Found It
Dear Rodeo
Feeling Things
Forgetting You
Gone
Hell Of A View
Hold Me Back
I Can’t
I Don’t Mind
Memory I Don’t Mess With
Pink
Prettiest Wreck
Takin’ It As It Comes
We Didn’t Have Much
Without You

[bboat11]

17. "Memory I Don't Mess With" - Lee Brice

Total: 214
Average: 12.59
Std Dev: 6.54


superdave3556 - 2
HeyHeyHey - 3
SHOOTER - 4
ClevelandRox - 6
d3vin44 - 6
lady𝓐fan - 8
LBTrocks - 12
fearlessarrow - 13
kw9461 - 13
bboat11 - 14
castleoblivion26 - 18
.indulgecountry - 18
George Strait Junkie - 18
someguy - 19
Darkest Hour - 19
tim - 20
Kanenrá:ke - 21


taylor is terrified

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
All The Good Ones Are
Beer Light
Better Than We Found It
Dear Rodeo
Feeling Things
Forgetting You
Gone
Hell Of A View
Hold Me Back
I Can’t
I Don’t Mind
Pink
Prettiest Wreck
Takin’ It As It Comes
We Didn’t Have Much
Without You

[bboat11]

I had never heard of Tiera before this rankdown, but SHOOTER found her and requested she be included! I do like "Found It In You" despite my bottom 2 rank. It's just a song that is severely held back by its production job to me, and that was hard for me to see past considering how strong the rest of this list is. I'd like to hear her voice in a less electronic and autotuned context!

Lee Brice is constantly being praised these days for being better than ever before, so it's no surprise that "Memory I Don't Mess With" sees a whole pile of top 5 losses! This song is definitely good, but I do not think Lee sounds that great here tbh. His tone is very thin and whiny for much of this song. I'm glad he's putting out music that's getting positive attention though!

[bboat11]

16. "Hold Me Back" - Parker McCollum

Total: 214
Average: 12.59
Std Dev: 6.04


tim - 1 (RIP :'( )
castleoblivion26 - 2
SHOOTER - 8
kw9461 - 8
fearlessarrow - 9
ClevelandRox - 10
Darkest Hour - 10
HeyHeyHey - 11
LBTrocks - 13
someguy - 14
bboat11 - 16
George Strait Junkie - 16
superdave3556 - 17
lady𝓐fan - 18
Kanenrá:ke - 18
d3vin44 - 20
.indulgecountry - 23


taylor is terrified

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
All The Good Ones Are
Beer Light
Better Than We Found It
Dear Rodeo
Feeling Things
Forgetting You
Gone
Hell Of A View
I Can’t
I Don’t Mind
Pink
Prettiest Wreck
Takin’ It As It Comes
We Didn’t Have Much
Without You

[bboat11]

"Hold Me Back" tied with "Memory I Don't Mess With", but won the tiebreaker because of tim's #1 rank! He now joins Kanenrá:ke in the early #1 losses club.

Considering Parker managed to win this thing with his last song "Young Man's Blues", and made the top 10 with "Like A Cowboy" before that, this leaving already is probably a bit of a disappointment to some people.

This song has a nice laid-back, relaxing groove to it that is undoubtedly a big part of its charm. To me this song was not exactly an immediate standout, but it definitely feels like a song that will continue to grow on me as we head into the future! "Young Man's Blues" is enough to get me to take him seriously as an artist and keep an excited eye on his future, so this song will definitely have more chances to grow on me.

[.indulgecountry]

I absolutely LOVE "Young Man's Blues" and "Pretty Heart" has gradually grown on me, but "Hold Me Back" didn't do much for me. It was a tough list though and I even told bboat11 when I submitted that in any other month we've done so far this probably would've escaped my bottom 5 in a different list with actively terrible things like "Earth to God" that were missing this time around.

[tim]

I found Lee's new song "Memory I Don't Miss" to be a bit underwhelming especially given the praise it seemed to be getting in the singles thread. I don't really care for either the production or how he sounds on this just as bboat11 pointed out. I haven't checked out his new album yet though and so I'm sure there'll be some songs that I prefer over this one.

When I first heard Parker's "Hold Me Back" the lyrics really hit me like a ton of bricks and I've had it on repeat ever since (so much so that it even managed to make it into my end-of-year list of most played songs). There were probably a couple better choices from his EP that would've performed better including "Love You Like That", but I had personally requested this one to be added and I thank the host for doing so!