Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 10:09:21 GMT -5
Alice In Wonderland is referenced in Crazyland, where his mind wanders when he is getting over with an ex and dealing with negative emotions such as regret, lost and insanity. Quotes such as "I told you so", "baby please come back" also popped up in his mind and they were used to tell a complete encounter story. To me they are quite smart writing, but something about the piano melody feels too simple, like this is crying for some steel guitar solos Condolences to zack97 for losing his #1. .indulgecountry got a perfect ranking.
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 10:12:19 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 10:23:09 GMT -5
When I learnt a potential song title of this album being "playin' Russian Roulette with the radio", I was very excited and wanted to "claim" the song, and I have never regretted. The only thing that is working against its favor is that there are way too many truck-driving or heartbreak themes, but the idea of this is absolutely amazing, including a sly inverted reference to his biggest hit Springsteen in the "I need a melody without a memory" line, and I love a great anthemic bridge that gives a song its fullness. At least bboat11 has the same good taste and ranks it the same as me.
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 10:30:16 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 10:36:41 GMT -5
Yeah it looked cool that the top 3 of this rankdown features one song from each album, but I think Through My Ray-Bans should have left a bit sooner.
It certainly is more inclusive than some of the other songs in this vain (namely the Jason Aldean songs about concerts tbh), building on bonds between the performer and the audience and the fact that concerts are good times that went too fast in life. The references to his second biggest hit (Drink In My Hand) and his brand of sunglasses are cute. It just takes for a while for the instrumentals to revamp up, like a concert intro song or something.
All but one participant put this in the top 10. What a surprisingly great showing.
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 10:40:06 GMT -5
Top 2Heart On Fire Hell Of A View 57 vs 60 points 6 #1's vs 0 #1's 3 participants may get perfect top 2 3rd lowest SD and 16th lowest SD
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🌺CountryLineDancer
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Biggest Canadian Country Music Fan on Pulse
Joined: May 2020
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Post by 🌺CountryLineDancer on Jun 23, 2023 10:55:27 GMT -5
We gotta admit, Hell Of A View is still here as it is a fantastic song, while Heart On Fire is stil here due to the single bias. Let the good song win!!!
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gonecountry
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Post by gonecountry on Jun 23, 2023 10:57:46 GMT -5
Hell of a View for the win....
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 10:59:18 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 11:13:49 GMT -5
Despite my best effort, Pulse ends up being basic to let the biggest hit of the triple album won the rankdown. They are tied in points by the last two submissions and the last submission became the decisive one. Even though I ranked it at #12 in 2021 Hot 100 year-end rankdown, Hell Of A View still feels like a lower-tier effort in his discography. It's weirdly lacking in energy, particularly music wise. At least the studio music video highlights the hell of a view where the recording of the album takes place. Also it really has zero business appearing in Soul, and feels like the label just wants a hit in there because of how commercially unviable the other songs are. Meanwhile Heart On Fire is more energetic and actually sounds like him. The piano is so fun to hear and Joanne Cotten is put to the best use here. I don't know why this specific song gets the "lip-sync from other music videos via technology" treatment, but at least this era has a non studio music video. Also this really only missed the Hot 100 year-end by one to two weeks. What a shame! Congratulations to zack97 for a perfect ranking of also-ran, HeyHeyHey, someguy and 🌺CountryLineDancer for a perfect ranking of winner, and tim, zaclord 🌈 and castleoblivion26 for the perfect top 2!
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 11:22:02 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 11:25:31 GMT -5
Thanks for joining the Heart & Soul rankdown, the most lengthy and overall not quite instant triple album. I am planning the extras rankdown before launching the final album tracks rankdown, so be patient while I draft the song list...
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🌺CountryLineDancer
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Post by 🌺CountryLineDancer on Jun 23, 2023 11:32:38 GMT -5
Catching Up: People Break has a fantastic melody, and the writing has a creative approach to the theme. Definitely a song that deserves the top 5, at least. Crazyland does not have as strong melody as other songs I am mentioning here, but I still like the lyrical approach and imagery in the song. I just love the phrase "Playing Russian Roulette with Radio," again, very creative output and solid melody. Through My Ray-Bans is one of the strongest songs from &, but surprised that it managed to stay all the way to the top 3. Heart On Fire did grow on me due to the single bias a little bit, and it is on a better side, compared with other up-tempo songs on the albums, but unless he releases another masterpiece like Two Pink Lines, I would continue to prefer his ballad songs over up-tempo songs. I would say his up-tempo materials were better earlier in his career, and I noticed it through this series. I'm glad that the right song won after all. While it may not have the most creative writing, compared with the songs I mentioned above, it still has the strongest melody, and to me, it is an iconic hit from this era at this point. Thanks for hosting Darkest Hour, and I'm ready for new EC soon.
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gonecountry
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Post by gonecountry on Jun 23, 2023 12:45:38 GMT -5
Thanks Darkest Hour for a great rankdown. For some reason, I have been avoiding this album so it was good to dig in and explore. Like the Outsiders, I have a feeling this one will grown on me, if given the chance.
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bboat11
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Post by bboat11 on Jun 23, 2023 15:52:17 GMT -5
I am really happy with how this rankdown went overall! I feel like we had a nice healthy mix of album tracks making it towards the top, and the ones that did it were pretty much the correct ones! "Russian Roulette" was a particularly awesome discovery for me, with the overall premise of the song being great as other people have pointed out. I am glad to see it beat some of the more boring or polarizing singles.
For me a lot of Eric's mid-tempos/ballads feel really safe, mostly because a lot of them blend together in a way that kinda feels formulaic now that it's happened enough times... But of his more recent mid-tempo hits, "Hell Of A View" is one of my favorites for some reason! Something about the melody just works for me, and doesn't feel quite as been-there-done-that as "Doing Life With Me", "Round Here Buzz", "Talladega", and some others.
Thanks for hosting! I'm excited for the album tracks rankdown! Since I have such a hot/cold relationship with his singles, I feel like the album tracks rankdown will be a lot more consistent for me than rankdowns with his singles mixed in usually are, lmao.
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 23, 2023 21:12:57 GMT -5
"Russian Roulette" was a particularly awesome discovery for me, with the overall premise of the song being great as other people have pointed out. You mean re-discovery? 7. "Russian Roulette" - Eric Church
Total: 211 Average: 10.05 Std Dev: 7.09 (4th largest)
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bboat11
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Post by bboat11 on Jun 23, 2023 21:57:03 GMT -5
"Russian Roulette" was a particularly awesome discovery for me, with the overall premise of the song being great as other people have pointed out. You mean re-discovery? 7. "Russian Roulette" - Eric Church
Total: 211 Average: 10.05 Std Dev: 7.09 (4th largest)
Yes, evidently I must
**Side note, I am currently working on putting together an archive spreadsheet of all the past results per artist in the New Country Releases series, so in the future when an artist is in that series I can easily list all of their songs and how well they have historically done (And remember which songs have even been used, lmao.)
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.indulgecountry
Diamond Member
Best Country Poster 2011, 2017, & 2018
"You left a mark on my face // And brought a dozen red flags in a vase"
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Post by .indulgecountry on Jun 24, 2023 18:49:44 GMT -5
Honestly, pleasantly surprised that "Heart on Fire" only lost by 3 points. I expected a landslide in favor of "Hell of a View," so I'll take it at least being a close finish, lol. For me HOF is one of his better uptempo singles, and HOAV is a rather pedestrian retread of most of his more midtempo reflective singles.
Happy to see "Crazyland" and "Ray-Bans" land in the top 5. Those were very nice discoveries.
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jun 26, 2023 8:57:06 GMT -5
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HeyHeyHey
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Post by HeyHeyHey on Jun 26, 2023 16:18:10 GMT -5
Oooh this is a fun collection of songs! One of them is in my 5 favorite songs ever and another is probably in my top 50 favorite songs ever.
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jul 14, 2023 7:39:31 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jul 22, 2023 3:10:06 GMT -5
1 week and 6 days left to send.
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jul 24, 2023 7:51:32 GMT -5
The fact that indulge is the first one to send a list for this has me Everyone else, 1 week and 4 days left to send.
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.indulgecountry
Diamond Member
Best Country Poster 2011, 2017, & 2018
"You left a mark on my face // And brought a dozen red flags in a vase"
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Post by .indulgecountry on Jul 24, 2023 15:58:46 GMT -5
The fact that indulge is the first one to send a list for this has me
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Post by tim on Jul 26, 2023 4:24:55 GMT -5
The fact that indulge is the first one to send a list for this has me It's been one hell of a long, hot summer for most of us, so...maybe a small extension might be in the cards? I'll likely have this wrapped up come next week.
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Jul 26, 2023 7:42:41 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Aug 6, 2023 0:39:46 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Aug 12, 2023 2:27:17 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Aug 13, 2023 1:41:14 GMT -5
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Darkest Hour
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Post by Darkest Hour on Aug 15, 2023 7:46:54 GMT -5
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