Megan Moroney "Lucky" RD (Aug 21 Due!)

[Kanenrá:ke]

Perfect first half! I adore this album and other than a few songs not going in the exact order I placed we still did keep all the best gems for the top 7!

"Gold" I really do enjoy and if it was fleshed out to a full song I'd have jumped it higher for sure.

"Just Like You" is the only song here that doesn't always click with me. I like it but the melody of the chorus sometimes annoys me.

"King Size Bed" is good, but compared to the rest of the album I find it doesn't have its own identity.

"Sister" is probably my least favorite Lyrically as it feels ever so slightly underdeveloped but the melody is great for me. And I love the vocal!

"New Level Of Life" is a great album closer! I really enjoy the production on this one wish I could've had it higher but there's so much great still to come!

"Preciatcha" I was expecting to be a little polarizing as the chorus melody is probably the most unique sounding on the album.

Now let the blood bath begin!

[Darkest Hour]

Gold is interlude but I get why she would pick a line from this song to be album title. This may be higher if it was a full song because these vocals are strong.
Sister is a bit too overblown.
Just Like You is a cute try of doo-wop influence but I don't really like the bridge.
Preciatcha feels like a too forced wordplay.
King Size Bed is my guilty pleasure regarding this album. The pop influence actually reminds me of Graveyard from RaeLynn's debut album which is quite catchy.
Some of instruments in New Level Of Life sound like Asian music influenced. It's otherwise decent.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#7 “Looking For A Lighter”

Total: 97
Average: 6.93
Std Dev: 2.92

d3vin44 - 2
taylor - 3
Kanenrá:ke - 4
someguy - 5
SHOOTER - 5
Darkest Hour - 6
dgarcia3377 - 6
samo🦕 - 8
.indulgecountry - 8
bboat11 - 9
castleoblivion26 - 9
tim - 10
ClevelandRox - 11
🌺CountryLineDancer - 11

This song was rather polarizing with two top 3 and bottom 3 rankings. While the rankings were quite disperse from #2 to #11, somehow #7 was missed, and thus, nobody scored the perfect ranking here.

CLD's Thought
This is a solid ballad song, but I did not find the melody to be as distinct as other slow/ballad songs in the album. I still feel like #11 was a bit harsh ranking for this song.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Sept 21, 2021 8:17:09 GMT -5 Darkest Hour said:

Some of instruments in New Level Of Life sound like Asian music influenced. It's otherwise decent.

Ooh, I'm not the only one who had this idea! The sound and melody of the instrument kinda reminded me of traditional music from Okinawa, the south part of Japan where I used to go vacation as a child. That's why this song stuck in my head for a while. Not sure it was a good combination as a country song, but it was personally memorable and unique.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#6 “Mean Something” (Featuring Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes)

Total: 90
Average: 6.43
Std Dev: 3.16

🌺CountryLineDancer - 1 :'(
castleoblivion26 - 2
Darkest Hour - 3
dgarcia3377 - 4
d3vin44 - 6
tim - 6
Kanenrá:ke - 7
someguy - 7
.indulgecountry - 7
bboat11 - 7
SHOOTER - 8
samo🦕 - 9
taylor - 11
ClevelandRox - 12

I, CLD, join ClevelandRox here and became the second participant to lose #1! This song was #1 in castleoblivion26 's Ashley McBride Extra RD, but ended up missing the top 5, which was determined by the last list from d3vin44 , as this was tying at #5 after the second to last list from taylor .

CLD's Thought
This missing the top 5 was rather sad. Definitely my favorite female collaboration from 2020. I just adore this song so much, great melody and production. Both Tenille Townes and Ashley McBride are great additions to this song (Don't even tell me about Tenille's voice being polarizing. Her voice is definitely going well with this song!!). #10+ rankings are crime to me!! I wish there were more of this 3 female collaborations among contemporary female country singers. I don't love huge 5+ collaborations, but 3 singers are definitely good number, as I can still enjoy the individuals' parts while I can still feel the connections between the artists involved.

[d3vin44]

Looking for a Lighter GUTTED me. I've only heard the song twice and it has been stuck in my head for days. Right up there with Small Town Hypocrite for me.

Caylee, girl, I've been there and I FEEL you on this one.  :'(

[castleoblivion26]

"Mean Something" should have been top 5. Easily one of my favorites from this album

[taylor]

DAMNIT!! "Looking For A Lighter" deserved Top 5. Such a beautiful, heart-wrenching song.

"Mean Something" should've left a long time ago lol.

[bboat11]

Oh wow! I am so pleased with this top 5!!! "Small Town Hypocrite", "Forged In The Fire", and "Redhead" were all pretty obvious, but those last two spots could have gone to just about anything else on the album. So pleased that one of them went to "Just Friends"! I think there is a perception of that one being really hated just because it was a bad single choice, but it's one of my personal favorites.

"Family Tree" is the odd one out in this top 5 for me. Caylee has an obvious personality and identity that is present on everything else that's left, but "Family Tree" is one of the most generic and made-to-blend-in-with-the-wallpaper debut singles to have come from a new female artist in the last couple years. Her career would be in an entirely different place right now if they had been bold and gone with "Hypocrite" as her debut... "Forged In The Fire" would have been a pretty memorable and strong lead too imo. Just catchy enough to stand out, but not be polarizing!

[Darkest Hour]

Mean Something (or really, the other songs) should be above two of the singles.

Sept 21, 2021 21:53:34 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Her career would be in an entirely different place right now if they had been bold and gone with "Hypocrite" as her debut... "Forged In The Fire" would have been a pretty memorable and strong lead too imo. Just catchy enough to stand out, but not be polarizing!

Small Town Hypocrite as lead single would be too bold for any artists lol, even Burning House by Cam is her second radio single and is preceded by an upbeat song (My Mistake).
Family Tree as lead single is kind of stealing My Church's country-gospel-pop playbook at that time, so I can understand why they would do it.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#5 “Family Tree”

Total: 88
Average: 6.29
Std Dev: 3.43 (Highest!!)
Chart Performance: #32

.indulgecountry - 2
🌺CountryLineDancer - 2
someguy - 3
tim - 3
d3vin44 - 4
Kanenrá:ke - 5
bboat11 - 6
castleoblivion26 - 6
ClevelandRox - 7
SHOOTER - 7
dgarcia3377 - 10
taylor - 10
samo🦕 - 10
Darkest Hour - 13

The first single to leave is the most polarizing song "Family Tree". Darkest Hour got rid of the #13 while four participants lost their top 3 songs. To this day, this is the only song by Caylee that made it to Country Airplay Chart in the US and Canada.

CLD's Thought
Like to many of y'all, this song was how I got to know Caylee. I fell in love with this song when she played this when I went seeing LanCo in 2019. Since then, I was rooting for this song on the Airplay chart, so it was quite upsetting when it lost the momentum around 30s. I agree that this is on the safer/generic side, but I would say it was a great strategy to introduce her to mainstream radio, considering how catchy/pleasant the song is. I wish the promo team did a better job to invest more in her follow-up singles though. To this day, it's my fav uptempo song by Caylee. Also, I became the first one to lose the top 3 with this song leaving

[dgarcia3377]

I didn't like Family Tree when I first heard the song. It made me not check her out for a while. I am glad that I gave her a second shot though because she has some awesome songs and singles. I will say Family Tree did grow on me a little bit since the first time I heard it

[taylor]

Same here. "Family Tree" is just...not good compared to the bulk of this album, lol, and it didn't turn me on to her at all. Once she came back around with the 1-2 punch of "Small Town Hypocrite" and "Redhead," and then when I heard "Just Friends," I was hooked. 

[.indulgecountry]

"Family Tree" has no business being lower than her other single.

Expecting "Friends" and "Forged" to be out next and leave us with the obvious 1-2 punch of "Hypocrite" winning with "Redhead" as runner-up.

[SHOOTER]

Just Friends > > > Family Tree.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#4 “Forged In The Fire”

Total: 76
Average: 5.42
Std Dev: 2.53

Kanenrá:ke - 2
bboat11 - 3
castleoblivion26 - 3
SHOOTER - 3
samo🦕 - 3
.indulgecountry - 4
Darkest Hour - 5
🌺CountryLineDancer - 6
taylor - 6
tim - 7
dgarcia3377 - 7
ClevelandRox - 8
someguy - 9
d3vin44 - 10

The last song to miss the top 3 is Forged In The Fire. This is the second last album track to leave, so bboat11 correctly predicted that this and Redhead would do the best among non-singles. This received five top 3 rankings and zero bottom 3 ranking!

CLD's Thought
I recall this being released just before the album release, and my expectation for this album grew even higher. Very strong melody and creative lyrics. I also love the Caylee's vocal, especially at the chorus. I would have preferred this to be the highest album track of this RD over Redhead tbh.

[Darkest Hour]

Why is Just Friends still here

[taylor]

Sept 23, 2021 10:02:06 GMT -5 Darkest Hour said:

Why is Just Friends still here

Cause it's a damn good song.

[SHOOTER]

Ecstatic at the way Just Friends came to slay in this rankdown!

FITF is also a beautiful song!

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#3 “Just Friends”

Total: 60
Average: 4.29
Std Dev: 2.64
Chart Peak: #52 (Country Indicator)

samo🦕 - 1
taylor - 2
dgarcia3377 - 2
Kanenrá:ke - 3
d3vin44 - 3
bboat11 - 4
castleoblivion26 - 4
someguy - 4
🌺CountryLineDancer - 4
tim - 4
.indulgecountry - 5
SHOOTER - 6
ClevelandRox - 6



Darkest Hour - 12

Sorry, I was busy, but back now to finish the reveal!! Just Friends is the follow-up single to Small Town Hypocrite, which did not chart (or was not really promoted). It appeared on New and Active section of the Airplay Chart a few times, but it only charted on the small market charts; Country Indicator Chart and Music Row Breakout Chart. Received 11 top 5 rankings, while Darkest Hour finally got rid of his bottom 3!

CLD's Thought
I am still bitter about it missing the national airplay chart, but this was a very bold move as a single, as it is not the most radio-friendly song on the album. Caylee's powerful vocal is being further enhanced with strong rock instrumental production. The tempo change is very memorable and unique, and enhanced the strength of this entire song. The chorus melody might not be the strongest, but still, it is a really strong opening track of the album.

[taylor]

I knew "Just Friends" was not gonna get past the firewall that is "Redhead" and "Small Town Hypocrite," and this seems to be very polarizing for some asinine reason so I'm very excited to see this #3 finish! This song seems to have performed quite well everywhere it's been--I remember in the Female "Flops" of Country Radio series' 2020 rankdown that I hosted, this song managed to eek out a placement at #9. I had ranked it a little lower that time, and so this song has clearly grown quite exponentially on me!

[Darkest Hour]

Glad my top 2 is the rankdown top 2 ;)

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

#2 “Redhead” (Featuring Reba McEntire)

Total: 48
Average: 3.43
Std Dev: 1.95 (2nd Lowest)

someguy - 1
tim - 2
SHOOTER - 2
Darkest Hour - 2
samo🦕 - 2
bboat11 - 2
dgarcia3377 - 3
.indulgecountry - 3
ClevelandRox - 3
taylor - 4
d3vin44 - 5
castleoblivion26 - 5
Kanenrá:ke - 6
🌺CountryLineDancer - 8

#1 “Small Town Hypocrite”

Total: 27
Average: 1.93
Std Dev: 1.69 (Lowest)

taylor - 1
dgarcia3377 - 1
Kanenrá:ke - 1
d3vin44 - 1
bboat11 - 1
castleoblivion26 - 1
tim - 1
SHOOTER - 1
Darkest Hour - 1
.indulgecountry - 1
someguy - 2
samo🦕 - 5
ClevelandRox - 5
🌺CountryLineDancer - 5

And this is it! The top 2 songs are also two songs with the lowest standard deviations. Redhead received 12 top 5 rankings, while Small Town Hypocrite received 10 #1 rankings!  I recall both songs entering Australian Country Airplay Chart, but they did not appear in any chart in the US. 

CLD's Thought
Redhead was not a bad song, and I love Caylee and Reba's powerful vocal, but did not stand out as much as other songs did to me in this album (and looks like I'm the minority here). At this point, I could say Small Town Hypocrite to be the most iconic song by Caylee, and definitely one of the most popular tunes on Pulse from last year. From melody to lyrics, Caylee's vocal beautifully and perfectly delivered this song, and shame that it was ignored by the mainstream market. 

[Darkest Hour]

Yeah the top 2 is so obvious. Would be bad if it didn't end up this way.

[taylor]

TEN #1s!!! You love to see the slayage!!! 

Absolutely love both songs in this Top 2, but hoo doggies, "Small Town Hypocrite" is just a FORCE. It's a shame it hasn't moved a muscle at country radio because it's a masterpiece no matter which way you look at it. Beautiful, beautiful song.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Closing Remark
Thank you very much for joining this RD!! It was an honour to host the RD for one of the popular albums among country posters in the recent years. Reveal went rather slowly, so I appreciate your patience. By revisiting this album, I cannot say I found so many radio-friendly songs, and promotion team definitely did not do the best job, but most of the songs here have very unique elements, and Caylee's strong vocal delivered each song in a way suitable way, powerfully or vulnerably. I just cannot wait see what she has in her pocket, (and what strategies her promo team has to bring her back to the mainstream attention, as she deserves it, even though I respect many artists that are only popular among secondary market). Midland RD is coming up soon, so hope to see your list again!!

Final Results
1. “Small Town Hypocrite” (27)
2. “Redhead” (Featuring Reba McEntire) (48)
3. “Just Friends” (60)
4. “Forged In The Fire” (76)
5. “Family Tree” (88)
6. “Mean Something” (Featuring Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes) (90)
7. “Looking For A Lighter” (97)
8. “New Level Of Life” (112)
9. “King Size Bed” (118)
10. “Preciatcha” (121)
11. “Just Like You” (135)
12. “Sister” (136)
13. “Gold” (166)

Perfect Rankings
tim - 5
SHOOTER - 5
bboat11 - 5
.indulgecountry - 4
Kanenrá:ke - 4
d3vin44 - 3
taylor - 3
castleoblivion26 - 3
Darkest Hour - 3
someguy - 2
samo🦕 - 2
dgarcia3377 - 2
🌺CountryLineDancer - 1
ClevelandRox - 1

bboat11, tim, and SHOOTER share the crown this time!

[.indulgecountry]

The correct finish! In a perfect world, both of these would've been singles after "Family Tree" and both would've been massive #1 hits, but alas, country radio sucks and the pandemic lowkey ruined the rollout for this album at radio since "Hypocrite" was too 'depressing' for the times and "Redhead" would've been perfect if it lined up with her touring with Reba as originally planned. </3

I hope there's still a chance this girl can breakout with album #2 in the future. She 100% has the goods and it seems like despite the minimal radio support thus far, that there's some reasonable interest in her and industry support considering the girl has already landed collaborations with Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, and Chris Stapleton.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Midland - On The Rocks

Deadline: October 15

List of Songs

1. "Lonely for You Only"
2. "Make a Little"
3. "Drinkin' Problem"
4. "At Least You Cried"
5. "Burn Out"
6. "Out of Sight"
7. "More Than a Fever"
8. "Check Cashin' Country"
9. "Nothin' New Under the Neon"
10. "This Old Heart"
11. "Altitude Adjustment"
12. "Electric Rodeo"
13. "Somewhere on the Wind"

First of all, feel free to drop more thoughts on Caylee RD, even though I am opening this one.

Time for a male album RD! I'm doing a group for the first time since Parmalee! Midland is another artist that got a decent number of votes in the poll, so I better have a decent turnout, around 12. This album features three singles, including their #1 hit in Canada "Drinkin' Problem". I am giving y'all just above 2 weeks, as I am already behind my RD, which is supposed to be done on a monthly basis. 




Country Rankdowns Tag List:
Adrian C. 🍓 austin BB🌕 bboat11 bigfan101 George Strait Junkie taylor castleoblivion26 ccarter1023 cedric Cody Wants Out... HeyHeyHey ClevelandRox g8erboi tim LBTrocks 🌺CountryLineDancer Crimsonio ethanhunt Fancy fearlessarrow gardyfan hydraflare Sambalada CagedJuggalo The Third Tanker .indulgecountry jamesflame James Leo ✔ born Kanenrá:ke The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 lady𝓐fan Mylo13 💜 netti RobbyFlorida schnetzka someguy zaclord 🌈 SwiftlySheeran Au$tin toomuchboy @xfer

Past participants:
SHOOTER Darkest Hour Kris Kringle dgarcia3377 &nbsp;Tylerjamesnerd

[tim]

It's been a while since I've listened to Midland's debut album, so I'm looking forward to going back and revisiting it!

[bboat11]

I just realized I had neglected to add this to the open rankdown list... Sorry! It's there now!!