Jon Pardi Rankdowns: Heartache Medication (FINISHED!)

[taylor]

1. Ain’t Always the Cowboy



Western Version:

Total: 44
Average: 3.14
Std. Dev.: 2.13 (Lowest!)

taylor - 1
kw9461 - 1
bboat11 - 1
tim - 1
fearlessarrow - 2
.indulgecountry - 2
🌺CountryLineDancer - 3
gardyfan - 3
castleoblivion26 - 3
HeyHeyHey - 3
gonecountry - 4
jtd Thee Stallion - 5
Darkest Hour - 7
ClevelandRox - 8

---

2. Heartache Medication


Total: 58
Average: 4.14
Std. Dev.: 3.16

gonecountry - 1
.indulgecountry - 1
ClevelandRox - 2
🌺CountryLineDancer - 2
gardyfan - 2
kw9461 - 2
HeyHeyHey - 2
tim - 2
taylor - 3
fearlessarrow - 6
Darkest Hour - 8
jtd Thee Stallion - 8
bboat11 - 9
.indulgecountry - 10

[taylor]

And with that, this rankdown is finally off my plate! And in a personal best of two hours, every result has been revealed!

”Ain’t Always the Cowboy” is ICONIC. Easily one of the best country releases of that year, that I feel deserved a little better from the public. It’s certainly a song that would make the King himself proud. “Heartache Medication,” the title track, is also a fantastic runner-up; I particularly love those instrumentals at the middle and towards the end.

I deeply apologize for the massive delay on this, and thank you so much for your patience in getting them posted. It feels great to have this one accomplished!

[.indulgecountry]

Single bias is kinda annoying on some of these. "Tequila Little Time" is 1,000% not one of the three best songs on this record and would've probably landed at like #7 here if it were left an album cut. The Lauren Alaina duet and "Nobody Leaves a Girl Like That" outserved!

But thankfully out of the album's three hits, the correct one came out on top. "Cowboy" is easily his 2nd best single for me (after "She Ain't in It" is #1). Lovely song.

[gonecountry]

Dec 13, 2022 19:57:07 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Single bias is kinda annoying on some of these. "Tequila Little Time" is 1,000% not one of the three best songs on this record and would've probably landed at like #7 here if it were left an album cut. The Lauren Alaina duet and "Nobody Leaves a Girl Like That" outserved!

But thankfully out of the album's three hits, the correct one came out on top. "Cowboy" is easily his 2nd best single for me (after "She Ain't in It" is #1). Lovely song.

Completely agree on the single bias. Not a bad song, but of all Jon's singles this is my least favorite - though I do like the horns and the mariachi influence.

Thanks taylor for hosting the rankdown. Some really strong songs on this album. If there weren't a few fillers on this album, I would probably play incessantly like I did his first two albums.

Til next time, happy holidays!

[HeyHeyHey]

“Ain’t Always The Cowboy” is a great song! Well deserved #1 even though I had it at 3.

When I saw 19 notifications I couldn’t even imagine what happened since I didn’t remember what RD I did that needed to be revealed.

[Darkest Hour]

16. As much as a neo-traditionalist Jon Pardi is, him talking about "outlaws/prisons" is out of his league.
15. Definitely one of the more basic songs melodically, think Paycheck from the album before, but I find it slightly more punchier than some of the others in this album
14/13. At least the correct bonus track is higher (partly courtesy of me) as Beer Light has better nostalgic melody than Bar Downtown. Praise Jeff Hyde for that vibe.
12. The bluegrass influence is cool, though he does not really fit for this vocally lol
11/5. I definitely like rowdier Jon Pardi (in terms of sound not vocal) more han anyone else. Me And Jack in particular is a barn-burner that is quite wild even when compared to many indie neo-traditionalist releases, let alone in a mainstream country album.
10. A solid country ballad, but not the one I would revisit the most.
9. Jeff Hyde's version is better. I also think the last note is played wrongly every single time.
8. It's still an earworm
7. There are some songs that George Strait (or similar kind) would own and this is the most obvious one. The fiddle sounds excellent.
6. It deserved to be a single, and I hope Eric & Miranda would perform this sometime in the future.
4. Idk why but I don't really like the melody of this one cmarping to other songs. Still would take this o ver most of the songs in his new album though.
3/2/1. The single bias is real. His vocal in the chorus of Ain't Always the Cowboy is the worst part of the song. Otherwise it feels epic, especially the Western version. Heartache Medication is good with the "Single, drinkin' doubles/Teardrops turnin' into bubbles" line, but I feel the fiddle in last chorus to be a bit off-beat. Tequila Little Time is silly but quite entertaining.

Thanks for completing the rankdown.