2024 YE Country RD (CAD) Due Dec 14

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#11 "White Noise"

Total: 116
Average: 10.55
Std Dev: 3.69


tim - 3
Kanenrá:ke - 6
🌺CountryLineDancer - 9
ClevelandRox - 10
SHOOTER - 10
zaclord 🌈 - 10
castleoblivion26 - 12
.indulgecountry - 13
bboat11 - 13
James - 14
LBTrocks - 16

The last song to miss the top 10 is "White Noise". This was the popular bottom 5 spot in the pre-reveal questions, but it actually never went into the bottom 5 range throughout the list submission. Written by three singer-songwriters; Kelsea Ballerini, Josh Kerr, and Ross Copperman. Interestingly, #13-#11 are the only 3 songs that were not written by Ell from the album. tim becomes the 3rd person to lose his top 3.

CLD's Thought
I enjoy White Noise, but it was about the time. A little flat song, but the chorus melody and the guitar production enhanced the quality of the song. I also enjoy this type of check-listy kinda lyrics.

[tim]

This admittedly was my first time listening to this album and "White Noise" happened to be an instant favorite of mine. It's one of the few that I ended up revisiting and so it ended up landing in my top 3.

[LBTrocks]

Oh my GOD. "Space" got SO SCREWED! Y'all what are you hearing with this one cuz it absolutely slays! Also so much for my "sPaCe MiGhT sNeAk InTo ThE ToP FiVe" prediction! Geesh! It couldn't even make the top 10, really?!

[Kanenrá:ke]

Ok I love "Mint" and am not quite understanding what went wrong there. It's such a breezy and fun jam that I wouldn't have pegged it for the last place!

Mostly going very well otherwise for me. "Just Another Girl" is the only song here I tend to skip as I find it too repetitive. ("Good" almost gets there too though.)

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#10 "Pickup Truck"

Total: 113
Average: 10.27
Std Dev: 5.35
Chart Performance: #25 in CAN Country Chart

🌺CountryLineDancer - 2 
James - 4
ClevelandRox - 6
bboat11 - 8
zaclord 🌈 - 8
castleoblivion26 - 9
.indulgecountry - 12
LBTrocks - 13
tim - 16
Kanenrá:ke - 17
SHOOTER - 18

The first single to lose is Pickup Truck. This was her second career single in Canada in 2014, but never released (or released, but not charted) in the US. 

CLD's Thought
This is the first upsetting reveal for me. Pickup Truck is a jam!!! Sure, lyrically it's mediocre, but I just love the catchy melody and the pleasant mood of this song!!! Definitely does not deserve to be the bottom of the singles!!!! I will make sure to add this in my 2014 Year-End RD to give you guys another chance to properly rank this

[LBTrocks]

Yeah so "Pickup Truck" could have missed the top 10 instead of "Space" k thanks

PT is honestly kinda meh. I do like it, but it's far from being one of her best songs, and it should NOT have been a single.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#9 "Trippin' On Us"

Total: 102
Average: 9.27
Std Dev: 5.41 (3rd Highest!)
Chart Performance:#14 in CAN, #46 in US

LBTrocks - 1 :'(
castleoblivion26 - 3 :'(
Kanenrá:ke - 5
ClevelandRox - 7
zaclord 🌈 - 7
SHOOTER - 8
James - 10
🌺CountryLineDancer - 14
bboat11 - 14
tim - 15
.indulgecountry - 18

This is the first US single to lose, and against some of your predictions, it is Trippin' On Us, not Champagne or Shut Me Up. LBTrocks becomes the first one to lose his #1!! This is Lindsay Ell's first career single both in Canada and in the US.

CLD's Thought
This one is fine to me, but did not stand out musically as much, compared with other singles. That said, I still consider this as a starting point of Lindsay's career. Surprised that this has both #1 and #18 rankers!

 

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#8 "Wildfire"

Total: 93
Average: 8.45
Std Dev: 6.20 (Highest!)


Kanenrá:ke - 2
castleoblivion26 - 2
SHOOTER - 3
tim - 4
LBTrocks - 5
bboat11 - 6
.indulgecountry - 8
zaclord 🌈 - 13
ClevelandRox - 14
🌺CountryLineDancer - 18
James - 18

So there was a tie here for #7 with two of the highest Std Devs in this RD, so the one with higher STD Dev is leaving first. (Not taking a tie here, as it's still out of the top 5). This is the winner of all the album tracks from "The Project"

CLD's Thought
Yeah, I'm not keen on this. Guitar solo is distinct, but the whole melody of the song was not my favourite. I knew this would be polarizing after receiving the first 2 lists from Kanenrá:ke and James and resulted in having two #18 rankers, including myself, and three top 3 rankers!

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

May 7, 2021 21:53:52 GMT -5 🌺CountryLineDancer said:

Kanenrá:ke - 2  :'(
castleoblivion26 - 2
SHOOTER - 3
tim - 4
LBTrocks - 5
bboat11 - 6
.indulgecountry - 8

🌺CountryLineDancer - 18
James - 18

We better run James

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#7 "Shut Me Up"

Total: 93
Average: 8.45
Std Dev: 5.47 (2nd Highest!)
Chart Performance:#23 in CAN, #47 in US

ClevelandRox - 2
LBTrocks - 3
castleoblivion26 - 4
bboat11 - 4
James - 6
SHOOTER - 7
Kanenrá:ke - 10
🌺CountryLineDancer - 11
zaclord 🌈 - 11
.indulgecountry - 17
tim - 18

This is the last reveal of the day, as I am finishing two-third of the list! Shut Me Up beats Wildfire, being the second most polarizing song. This was correctly predicted to one of the most polarizing songs, while Kanenrá:ke precisely guessed that Wildfire would be the most polarizing one. This song had a great start, and was taking #2 spot at some point.
CLD's Thought
While I don't always love this song, this is still a jam, and I enjoy this strong rock production, especially when I'm in the right mood! This is such a distinct song and I think it was a great choice of them to send this as the second single in the US, as this song precisely delivers Lindsay Ell's brand as a rock-influenced country singer/guitarist, which was not fully delivered through Trippin' On Us.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Our Top 6!!

Songs Left
"Waiting on You"
"Champagne"
"Criminal"
"By The Way"
"All Alright"
"Standing Here"

Scores Left

?
?
73

85
86

92

Will finish tomorrow!

[LBTrocks]

I KNEW THEY WERE GOING TO GET SCREWED!!!!!!!!!

OK, maybe not AS screwed as I thought (at least they're in the top 10) but good LORD y'all sill have questionable AF taste!!!

"Trippin On Us" is one of the greatest songs EVER!!!!! Seriously this is STRAIGHT UP out of the early/mid 2000s female country sound can I help you all, the incredible guitar and vocal arrangement paired with Lindsay's immaculate Amy Dalley-esque vocals that SLAY. I highly doubt she will EVER top this song for me!!!!!

"Shut Me Up" is also insanely reminiscent of the mid 2000s female country we all YEARN for! The vocal arrangement is immaculate and it's so edgy and dark in all the right ways! This and TUS should have been EASY locks for the top 5... I cannot right now.

"Criminal" and ONLY CRIMINAL ftw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SHOOTER]

1-2-12-13-14-15

Welp! I’ll be satisfied with anything but 12 winning.

[Kanenrá:ke]

"Pickup Truck" isn't bad, but it's more just "basic". I knew when I first heard it it was not the song to break her through. Felt like filler for Canada.

For "Trippin' On Us" I co-sign LBTrocks thoughts (other than it being her best). I love the melody and guitar work on here so much, and honestly it's probably one of her best vocals.

"Shut Me Up" I can totally see why it's polarizing, and I thought "Famous" by Kelleigh Bannen which was out just before it was a better take on the same idea, but there's no denying it's a jam. So fun to turn this one up in the car!

"Wildfire" is easily her best song instrumentally, probably the heaviest she went in the rock direction it just really really suits her wonderfully.

For this top six I'm a little surprised to still see "Champagne", would've thought the melody would've done it in sooner.

"Standing Here" was also not what I thought would be the highest album track!

While not my lowest remaining I do think "Waiting On You" fits her style the least of the songs remaining and I wouldn't mind if it went first.

[.indulgecountry]

It was a messy road to get there, but this is a pretty solid top 6 we're left with.

Glad that "Trippin' on Us" ended up where it did. Awful song. The only thing from her to date that I've flat-out hated. "Shut Me Up" comes close tho. Definitely an easy bottom 2, and I remember thinking when these were her first two offerings to country radio that I hoped she'd flop and go away, but then she finally came out with "By the Way" and that's when I realized she had some potential.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Ready for the last reveal day??
🌺CountryLineDancer   Kanenrá:ke  James  zaclord 🌈   bboat11
ClevelandRox  SHOOTER  tim  .indulgecountry   James LBTrocks

Just sharing this, as interestingly, the two singers whose RDs I just hosted are releasing a collaboration!!!

[zaclord 🌈]

May 8, 2021 19:29:43 GMT -5 🌺CountryLineDancer said:

Ready for the last reveal day??
🌺CountryLineDancer   Kanenrá:ke  James  zaclord 🌈   bboat11
ClevelandRox  SHOOTER  tim  .indulgecountry   James LBTrocks

Just sharing this, as interestingly, the two singers whose RDs I just hosted are releasing a collaboration!!!

LBT Album Rankdown next? :)

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#6 "Standing Here"

Total: 92
Average: 8.36
Std Dev: 3.26 (3rd Lowest!)

James - 2
🌺CountryLineDancer - 5
castleoblivion26 - 7
bboat11 - 7
.indulgecountry - 7
ClevelandRox - 9
Kanenrá:ke - 9
zaclord 🌈 - 9
LBTrocks - 12
tim - 12
SHOOTER - 13

The last album track to leave is Standing Here. This is the first song without bottom rankers. This song was the only song  included in "Worth the Wait" EP, but did not make it to "The Project" (excluding Stop This Train, the John Mayer cover). One of the writers is Ryan Hurd.

CLD's Thought
This is definitely my favourite album track, so glad it made it all the way here. The chorus melody is really strong, and the guitar production is really distinct, especially at the last chorus. I wonder why this did not make it to the album, because this definitely should have.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

May 8, 2021 19:38:36 GMT -5 zaclord 🌈 said:

May 8, 2021 19:29:43 GMT -5 🌺CountryLineDancer said:

Ready for the last reveal day??
🌺CountryLineDancer   Kanenrá:ke  James  zaclord 🌈   bboat11
ClevelandRox  SHOOTER  tim  .indulgecountry   James LBTrocks

Just sharing this, as interestingly, the two singers whose RDs I just hosted are releasing a collaboration!!!

LBT Album Rankdown next?

I would love that RD series!
The honour of hosting that series should go to LBTrocks though!

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#5 "All Alright"

Total: 86
Average: 7.82
Std Dev: 4.71 (2nd Highest!)
Chart Performance:#9 in CAN

.indulgecountry - 3
Kanenrá:ke - 4
🌺CountryLineDancer - 4
zaclord 🌈 - 4
tim - 5
castleoblivion26 - 6
James - 7
LBTrocks - 11
bboat11 - 11
SHOOTER - 14
ClevelandRox - 17

All Alright is the first song to fill our top 5! This had a strong start around #3, and wend down as low as #10, and settled down at #5. This was only released in Canada as a radio single, and became her first top 10 hit. This was the last non-album single, and also the biggest hit in Canada of all the 5 non-album singles.

CLD's Thought
This song may not be lyrically or instrumentally as distinct as other songs, but just super catchy!!! I just adore the chorus melody! This has a poppy vibe similar to By The Way, so kinda make sense that they didn't bother sending this to the US radio. 

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#4 "Champagne"

Total: 85
Average: 7.73
Std Dev: 4.08 
Chart Performance: NA

James - 3
ClevelandRox - 3
LBTrocks - 4
castleoblivion26 - 5
zaclord 🌈 - 5
tim - 8
.indulgecountry - 9
bboat11 - 9
SHOOTER - 12
🌺CountryLineDancer - 12
Kanenrá:ke - 15

The last song to miss the top 3 is "Champagne". This was predicted to be the lowest single in the pre-reveal questions by some of you, but ended up staying for quite a long time! "Champagne" was officially released as a radio single both in Canada and in the US as a third and the last single from "The Project", but never charted. As you can see below there, this song went through lots of ups and downs.

CLD's Thought
Well, didn't we have a better Champagne in Cassadee Pope RD...? Anyways, this song is fine, and has an interesting chorus, but the verse could have been much better. I can't way it was a great single choice, as it lacks the rock element that uniquely represents Lindsay Ell or catchy pop element that would be popular on the radio. Also, looks like this was #74 in 2018 Year-end RD (would have been higher if I had been around), and in theory, all the other lower songs in this RD would be lower than #74 in that RD. Yeah, so wrong!

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#3 "By The Way"

Total: 73
Average: 6.64
Std Dev: 5.08
Chart Performance:#14 in CAN, #44 in US

🌺CountryLineDancer - 1
zaclord 🌈 - 2
.indulgecountry - 2
bboat11 - 2
Kanenrá:ke - 3
James - 5
LBTrocks - 9
tim - 10
castleoblivion26 - 11
ClevelandRox - 13
SHOOTER - 15

Losing the last non-album single, "By The Way" and I became the second person to lose #1, joining @countrylocks. "By The Way" was the first song to show the poppy/catchy element in her music, compared with previous rock-focused singles "Trippin' on Us", "Pickup Truck", "Shut Me Up". 

CLD's Thought
By The Way is one of my favs from Lindsay for sure, and one of the catchiest pop country songs. I love the intro of this song, it's like the perfect entrance into the 3 minutes of catchy moment. As .indulgecountry pointed out, this was also the first song by her that I really enjoyed. By the way, looks like this was not included in the year-end RD eh!

"Waiting on You" vs "Criminal"

[.indulgecountry]

"By the Way" is a bop and it should've been her breakout hit. It was so radio-friendly and got off to a decent start but then just did what all her singles that chart seem to do, stalled out and floundered for no good damn reason.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#2 "Waiting on You"

Total: 70
Average: 6.36
Std Dev: 2.87 (2nd Lowest!)
Chart Performance:#4 in CAN, #42 in US

SHOOTER - 2
tim - 2
.indulgecountry - 4
bboat11 - 5
zaclord 🌈 - 6
🌺CountryLineDancer - 7
Kanenrá:ke - 8
LBTrocks - 8
castleoblivion26 - 8
James - 9
ClevelandRox - 11

#1 "Criminal"

Total: 14
Average: 1.27
Std Dev: 0.65 (Lowest!)
Chart Performance:#1 in CAN, #19 in US

SHOOTER - 1
tim - 1
.indulgecountry - 1
bboat11 - 1
zaclord 🌈 - 1
Kanenrá:ke - 1
castleoblivion26 - 1
James - 1
ClevelandRox - 1
LBTrocks - 2
🌺CountryLineDancer - 3

Two of the most successful singles take the top 2!! "Waiting on You" is her first top 5 song in Canada, and "Criminal" is her first #1 song! "Waiting on You" started okay, and climbed up to #2 throughout the submission period. But wow, what a performance  by "Criminal"!!! This average of 1.27 and Std Dev of 0.65 is even lower than it was in Wasting All These Tears!!! More curious to see what the record low AVG/STD is!

CLD's Thought
"Waiting on You" is a great choice as the lead single of "The Project". It is a great mixture of her unique guitar focused production and her catchy sound, and it well represents the album "The Project". "Criminal" is just amazing, what a strong song! The lyrics and the theme of the song is perfect for her vocal and the rock production. The strong chorus melody effectively delivers the lyrics and perfectly matches with the production. I hope she can have another success in the US, like she did with Criminal!

[.indulgecountry]

"Criminal" was the rightful winner so it's cool to see it be such a blowout. It's a shame that despite being her biggest hit in the U.S., it still only just barely grazed the top 20. She deserved to hit the top of the charts down here, too!

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Final Comment
Thank y'all for participating! It was fun to re-visit Lindsay Ell's debut era, and listening many of her great materials, it makes me want to root for her career in the US more. "heart theory" RD is coming up around this winter, so don't miss out! I am opening 2019 Year End RD tomorrow here, so hope to see your lists in that one as well! Don't forget that Parmalee RD is closing at the end of this month.

Final Result
1. Criminal (14 - 1.27)
2. Waiting on You (70 - 6.36)
3. By The Way (73 - 6.64)
4. Champagne (85 - 7.73)
5. All Alright (86 - 7.82)
6. Standing Here (92 - 8.36)
7. Shut Me Up (93 - 8.45)
8. Wildfire (93 - 8.45)
9. Trippin' On Us (102 - 9.27)
10. Pickup Truck (113 - 10.27)
11. White Noise (116 - 10.55)
12. Space (119 - 10.82)
13. Always Kiss the Girl (122 - 11.09)
14. Just Another Girl (126 - 11.45)
15. Castle (130 - 11.82)
16. Worth the Wait (135 - 12.27)
17. Good (149 - 13.55)
18. Mint (163 - 14.82)

Perfect Rankings
tim - 4
bboat11 - 3
James - 3
SHOOTER - 3
.indulgecountry - 3
Kanenrá:ke - 2
zaclord 🌈 - 2
castleoblivion26 - 2
ClevelandRox - 2
LBTrocks - 1
🌺CountryLineDancer - 1

tim scored the most perfect rankings again! He was the winner of Cassadee RD as well!

[bboat11]

May 8, 2021 21:00:09 GMT -5 🌺CountryLineDancer said:

Two of the most successful singles take the top 2!! "Waiting on You" is her first top 5 song in Canada, and "Criminal" is her first #1 song! "Waiting on You" started okay, and climbed up to #2 throughout the submission period. But wow, what a performance  by "Criminal"!!! This average of 1.27 and Std Dev of 0.65 is even lower than it was in Wasting All These Tears!!! More curious to see what the record low AVG/STD is!

So the averages alone are meaningless. Lindsay's 1.27 cannot be directly compared with Cassadee's 1.29 to tell us anything worthwhile, because this rankdown has 18 songs and Cassadee's only had 13. So what I do is divide the average by the total amount of songs, which basically converts everything to a percentile, and THEN averages can be directly compared.

So "Criminal"'s 1.27 out of 18 gives Lindsay a 7.07.
And "Wasting All These Tears'" 1.29 out of 13 gives Cassadee a 9.89.

That is a super impressive finish for both of them, but clearly Lindsay's is a little more impressive! "Criminal" is now the 6th-highest rankdown winner of all time, while WATT is #11!

Here's the top 11:
1. "All The Good Ones Are Gone" - Pam Tillis Extras rd (4.38)
2. "How Do I Live" - Trisha Yearwood Extras rd (4.95)
3. "Independence Day" - Gretchen Peters Songwriter Rankdown (5.21)
4. "Independence Day" - Martina McBride Rankdown 2.0 (6.29
5. "Concrete Angel" - Martina McBride Extras rd (6.88)
6. "Criminal" - Lindsay Ell The Project album rd (7.07)
7. "Independence Day" - Martina McBride Rankdown 1.0 (8.23)
8. "The Wrong Girl" - Lee Ann Womack Extras rd (8.93)
9. "Check Yes Or No" - George Strait Extras rd (9.57)
10. "Third Rock From The Sun" - Joe Diffie Rankdown (9.83)
11. "Wasting All These Tears" - Cassadee Pope Frame By Frame album rd (9.89)

That is also every rankdown winner to ever score higher than the 10th percentile!

Unfortunately I do not have any standard deviation data.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Thank you for the info bboat11!
That list is impressive, especially "Independence Day" being there 3 times.
This kinda data is definitely another interesting aspect of RDs!

[tim]

I certainly never expected to do as well as I did in the Cassadee Pope and now again in this as both of these albums were first-time listens for me. "Criminal" is a song that has grown on me over the last couple of years and is one that I also featured in my Country Ladies of the '10s Rankdown. At this point, I can't believe it wasn't a bigger hit than what it deserved.

"Waiting on You" is another song that had to grow one me, but after each subsequent listen I found myself more intrigued by it. By the time I was wrapping up my list, I found this to be an easy jam.

Thanks again 🌺CountryLineDancer for the hosting duties...job well done!

[tim]

Oh, one train of thought that I had after listening to Lindsay's album is that I had picked up a lot of Grace Potter vibes. Not sure if I'm alone in that thought, but as a fan of Grace's that is what happened to cross my mind as I listened to The Project.