2022 Country Rankdown (Revealing!)

[ilikemilk]

I didn't have time to do this but Something In The Orange for the win!!! One of the best country songs ever.

[bboat11]

2022 Country Rankdown: Results Time!!!!

This year-end rankdown is officially CLOSED!!!! We made it to 35 this year, which is pretty great! We typically finish somewhere in the 31-32 range, so I'll take this as a victory!

Final Participant List (35):

1. Darkest Hour

2. raylatch98

3. Kanenrá:ke

4. zaclord 🌈

5. bigfan101

6. gardyfan

7. Fire

8. superdave3556

9. .indulgecountry

10. Fanstar1

11. 🌺CountryLineDancer

12. khan

13. HeyHeyHey

14. bboat11

15. nuggie99

16. wrip

17. George Strait Junkie

18. bigd79

19. wavey.

20. austin

21. SHOOTER

22. tim

23. fearlessarrow

24. lady𝓐fan

25. kw9461

26. nathanalbright

27. 312999

28. fireflies

29. zdm1998

30. taylor is terrified

31. castleoblivion26

32. someguy

33. CoJoFan

34. Troublemaker

35. LBTrocks

Following:

Cody Wants Out...

If anybody else would like to be tagged, let me know!

---

Questions to get us started:

1. What is going to win?

2. What else might be in the top 10?

3. What is going to be last place?

4. What else might be in the bottom 10?

5. What are the most/lease polarizing songs?

6. How will "Son of A" and "Son of a Sinner" compare to each other?

7. Did you have a favorite discovery from this rankdown?

8. How well will "Something in the Orange" perform?

9. Miranda Lambert is our reigning champion after winning last year with "Settling Down". How well will she finish this year with "If I Was A Cowboy" and "Strange"?

10. Any other thoughts/predictions?

[Darkest Hour]

1. What is going to win?
Never Wanted To Be That Girl

2. What else might be in the top 10?
All Too Well (Taylor's Version), 'Til You Can't, She Had Me At Heads Carolina, If I Was A Cowboy, Strange, HEARTFIRST, I Bet You Think About Me, Circles Around This Town, Everything She Ain't

3. What is going to be last place?
Country'd Look Good On You

4. What else might be in the bottom 10?
Steal My Love, You, You Proof, EASY TONIGHT, She Likes It, Come Back As A Country Boy, Trouble With A Heartbreak, That's What Tequila Does, Country On

5. What are the most/lease polarizing songs?
Most polarizing: Something in the Orange, Flower Shops
Least polarizing: Never Wanted To Be That Girl, 'Til You Can't

6. How will "Son of A" and "Son of a Sinner" compare to each other?
Son of a Sinner should perform slightly better. They both end up just below the middle of the rankdown.

7. Did you have a favorite discovery from this rankdown?
My #27.

8. How well will "Something in the Orange" perform?
In a country forum with better taste, SITO would be top 10 and included in the decade rankdown, but looking at the participants list, I guess top 30 is a bit too hopeful here .

9. Miranda Lambert is our reigning champion after winning last year with "Settling Down". How well will she finish this year with "If I Was A Cowboy" and "Strange"?
If I Was A Cowboy should perform slightly better. Both top 10.

10. Any other thoughts/predictions?
Hope Doing Life With Me will perform decently.

[Fire]

1. What is going to win?
maybe never wanted to be that girl?

2. What else might be in the top 10?
idk maybe like if i was a cowboy or ghost story? idk what else to put here tbh lol wait how did i forget about all too well lol

3. What is going to be last place?
hopefully something awful like truth about you or she likes it or smt

4. What else might be in the bottom 10?
probably a lot of morgan wallen i think? then also easy tonight

5. What are the most/lease polarizing songs?
sito and joml both highest, whatever loses or wins for lowest idk

6. How will "Son of A" and "Son of a Sinner" compare to each other?
maybe son of a sinner higher

7. Did you have a favorite discovery from this rankdown?
4

8. How well will "Something in the Orange" perform?
polarizing SD, maybe in like the 60s or smt, tho it SHOULD be top 10 but fsr the tractors seem to hate it

9. Miranda Lambert is our reigning champion after winning last year with "Settling Down". How well will she finish this year with "If I Was A Cowboy" and "Strange"?
iiwac maybe makes top 10 but i don't see either of these winning tbh

10. Any other thoughts/predictions?
yes

[Darkest Hour]

Fire this rankdown doesn't have You Should Probably Leave. Joy Of My Life is in as a solo Chris Stapleton song instead.

[Fire]

Feb 19, 2023 12:01:25 GMT -5 Darkest Hour said:

Fire this rankdown doesn't have You Should Probably Leave. Joy Of My Life is in as a solo Chris Stapleton song instead.

oops i'm a dumbass lol

[.indulgecountry]

"Something in the Orange" stans make me like the song even less, lol. Like we get it, you like it, but... some of us don't. Because the guy can't f**king sing. Trust me, I'm just as mystified that it has all these fans as some of y'all are that not all of us like it. But all the talk it spurs, mostly from people who aren't really diehard country fans, about it being the best country song ever created is nauseating. 🥴💀

Anyway...

1. What is going to win?
Never Wanted to Be That Girl

2. What else might be in the top 10?
She Had Me at Heads Carolina, Heart Like a Truck, Circles Around This Town, 'Til You Can't, All Too Well, at least 1 of MirLam's songs

3. What is going to be last place?
It's between "EASY TONIGHT" and "Beach Boys" prob

4. What else might be in the bottom 10?
Come Back as a Country Boy, If I Were Rock & Roll, Steal My Love, She Likes It, at least 1 of Luke Bryan's songs (maybe both, lol)

5. What are the most/lease polarizing songs?
Most: "Something in the Orange" because you either think it's dogs**t due to the awful vocals or the best country song ever created apparently
Least: "Never Wanted to Be That Girl"

6. How will "Son of A" and "Son of a Sinner" compare to each other?
Predicting "Son of a Sinner" closer to the middle, maybe like landing in the 50s. "Son of A" more like... 80s at best.

7. Did you have a favorite discovery from this rankdown?
Since I'm a Tractor™️, I knew all of these already

8. How well will "Something in the Orange" perform?
Expecting it to be at least top 30, unfortunately. Hopefully not any higher.

9. Miranda Lambert is our reigning champion after winning last year with "Settling Down". How well will she finish this year with "If I Was A Cowboy" and "Strange"?
I'll predict one of them sneaks into the top 10 and the other is just below. I'm not really sure which will be higher tho because "Strange" seemed to be the more popular song on Pulse, but "Cowboy" was the big hit.

10. Any other thoughts/predictions?
Rooting for everyone female. Except Priscilla and Caitlyn. Sorry to those women.

[raylatch98]

1. What is going to win?
"Never Wanted To Be That Girl" although I do think "She Had Me At Heads Carolina" could be a dark horse.
2. What else might be in the top 10?
"All Too Well", "She Had Me At Heads Carolina", "Never Say Never", "Heart Like A Truck", "Til You Can't", "HEARTFIRST", "If I Was A Cowboy", "Wilder Days", and "Damn Strait"
3. What is going to be last place?
"AA"
4. What else might be in the bottom 10?
"You Proof" "Easy Tonight" "She Likes It" both Jason Aldean songs, "Out In The Middle", "Come Back As A Country Boy", "Up", and "Soul"
5. What are the most/lease polarizing songs?
Most: "Something In The Orange" (people either love this song or want this song to go away forever and never exist)
Least: "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" or "She Had Me At Heads Carolina" for songs placing high, and for lower songs "Come Back As A Country Boy"
6. How will "Son of A" and "Son of a Sinner" compare to each other?
"Son Of A" makes Top 70. "Son of a Sinner" makes Top 40.
7. Did you have a favorite discovery from this rankdown?
I forgot how much I loved "Missing One" by Jameson Rodgers. Should have been a hit or at least did better than it did.
8. How well will "Something in the Orange" perform?
Makes Top 20 but not quite Top 10.
9. Miranda Lambert is our reigning champion after winning last year with "Settling Down". How well will she finish this year with "If I Was A Cowboy" and "Strange"?
Both make Top 20 with "If I Was A Cowboy" in the Top 10 and "Strange" just outside of it.
10. Any other thoughts/predictions?
Rooting for Cole Swindell and a lot of the women sans Gabby Barrett (I never liked "Pick Me Up" and her fans have ruined her as an artist for me), Kassi Ashton (how indulge feels about Priscilla Block is how I feel about her), Lindsay Ell (shockingly), and Tenille Townes.

Also I love the pure extremes the mere existence "Something In The Orange" has caused. It truly feels like people either stan it and Zach Bryan or think he is an overrated talentless hack who shouldn't be popular at all and the song is putrid. No in between. 

[LBTrocks]

Don't feel like answering all the questions but I think "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" easily has this. I'm not holding out much hope for my #1 to do very well. There are so many viable options for last place I don't even know which one to pick.

I don't think Zach Bryan can sing. I also think he's definitely struck a chord with people, so kudos to him for that. "Something In The Orange" is a terrible song, made 10x worse by the lack of talent, so I'm hoping it is out asap. I'm not convinced it will crack the top 50, honestly. But I doubt it will be in the top 10 or 20.

[312999]

I like Something In The Orange a lot due to the nice eerie chill sound and calmness of it. Honestly I’m even surprised myself why or how come I like it, but I just do. I know it’s going to be very polarizing, but I hope that it could at least be top 30 here. At this point I don’t know where to expect it to be. So that’s my reasoning of why I think it’s a nice song, and his vocals don’t bother me really.

[Gonza'90]

Can I be tagged?

[nuggie99]

1. What is going to win?
'Til You Can't

2. What else might be in the top 10?
Everything She Ain't

3. What is going to be last place?
Easy Tonight maybe

4. What else might be in the bottom 10?
Sounds that are in my top 10

5. What are the most/lease polarizing songs?
My taste runs so contrary to the normal peeople here, I have no idea.

6. How will "Son of A" and "Son of a Sinner" compare to each other?
Sinner will do a little better.

7. Did you have a favorite discovery from this rankdown?
Not songwise, but I found that even harder than picking between 2 songs you love is picking between 2 songs you like.  This was my first ever rankdown.

8. How well will "Something in the Orange" perform?
Somewhere in the middle. I voted it lower because even though I like Zach Bryan, it's my least favorite. "Open the Gate", "Highway Boys" or "Revival" are more my speed.

9. Miranda Lambert is our reigning champion after winning last year with "Settling Down". How well will she finish this year with "If I Was A Cowboy" and "Strange"?
10-20 Strange 20-30 Conwboy

10. Any other thoughts/predictions?
Of my personal top 10, 5 will be in the top ten and 5 in the bottom half.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

1. What is going to win?
"Never Wanted To Be That Girl".
2. What else might be in the top 10?
"All Too Well", "She Had Me At Heads Carolina", "Everything She Ain't", "Heart Like A Truck", "Til You Can't", "HEARTFIRST", "If I Was A Cowboy", "Damn Strait", and "Wishful Drinking"
3. What is going to be last place?
"Easy Tonight"
4. What else might be in the bottom 10?
"You Proof" "She Likes It" "That's What Tequila Does", "Country On", "Come Back As A Country Boy", "Up", "Soul", "Country'd Look Good On You", and "You"
5. What are the most/lease polarizing songs?, "
Most: "Something In The Orange"
Least: "You Proof"
6. How will "Son of A" and "Son of a Sinner" compare to each other?
"Son Of A" in the 80s, "Son of a Sinner" in the 60s
7. Did you have a favorite discovery from this rankdown?
I knew all the songs, but I added What A Song Can Do into my playlist through this RD.
8. How well will "Something in the Orange" perform?
30s
9. Miranda Lambert is our reigning champion after winning last year with "Settling Down". How well will she finish this year with "If I Was A Cowboy" and "Strange"?
"If I Was A Cowboy" in the top 10 (but not in the top 5), "Strange" in the late 10s.
10. Any other thoughts/predictions?
In my Canadian RD, 6 songs ended as follows
1. Lindsay Ell 2. James Barker 3. Tenille Townes 4. Josh Ross 5. Megan Dawson and Madeline Merlo (tie)
My prediction is as follows:
1. Lindsay Ell (30s) 2. Tenille Townes (30s) 3. Madeline Merlo (40s) 4. Megan Dawson (50s) 5. Josh Ross (70s) 6. James Barker band (70s)
Rooting for em all. 

[LBTrocks]

Also, I hope Josh Ross doesn’t get tanked to hell in this. “First Taste of Gone” is fucking beautiful, and easily one of my favorites on this list.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Feb 21, 2023 16:34:19 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

Also, I hope Josh Ross doesn’t get tanked to hell in this. “First Taste of Gone” is f**king beautiful, and easily one of my favorites on this list.

I surely hope so, but considering that he is a male singer facing a familiarity bias, I cannot be too optimistic...

[zaclord 🌈]

Feb 21, 2023 16:37:02 GMT -5 🌺CountryLineDancer said:

Feb 21, 2023 16:34:19 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

Also, I hope Josh Ross doesn’t get tanked to hell in this. “First Taste of Gone” is f**king beautiful, and easily one of my favorites on this list.

I surely hope so, but considering that he is a male singer facing a familiarity bias, I cannot be too optimistic...

Honestly familiarity bias probably mostly negatively affects male artists in country rankdowns so Josh could do fairly well because I doubt anyone tanks him to hell with how much s**t popular country artists give us to rank here lol

[bboat11]

Feb 21, 2023 20:42:13 GMT -5 zaclord 🌈 said:

Feb 21, 2023 16:37:02 GMT -5 🌺CountryLineDancer said:

I surely hope so, but considering that he is a male singer facing a familiarity bias, I cannot be too optimistic...

Honestly familiarity bias probably mostly negatively affects male artists in country rankdowns so Josh could do fairly well because I doubt anyone tanks him to hell with how much s**t popular country artists give us to rank here lol

This is a good point, although I will warn you guys that there are multiple people among us who seemingly tanked everything they were least familiar with, regardless of gender. I don't want to straight up say that it was just because they were less familiar with it, but it certainly has that appearance


Like, there are legitimately people here who have "Up" ranked higher than Lindsay Ell..... Let that sink in!

[bboat11]

I'm sorry for the delay in getting this started! I have been attending a conference this week! My very first one! It was actually in my city, so I didn't have to travel, but I was still busy until at least 8-9 every night. Which doesn't work all that well for you other-time-zone people.

That being said, it is Friday night, and I'm READY to get started! Is anyone around and ready to see what the WORST songs of the year were??!?

SPOILER: Click to show

{Good Day For Tractors}
Darkest Hour - raylatch98 - Kanenrá:ke - zaclord 🌈 - bigfan101 - gardyfan - Fire - superdave3556 - .indulgecountry - Fanstar1 - 🌺CountryLineDancer - khan - HeyHeyHey - bboat11 - nuggie99 - wrip - George Strait Junkie - bigd79 - wavey. - austin - SHOOTER - tim - fearlessarrow - lady𝓐fan - kw9461 - nathanalbright - 312999 - fireflies - zdm1998 - taylor is terrified - castleoblivion26 - someguy - CoJoFan - Troublemaker - LBTrocks - Cody Wants Out... - Gonza'90

[LBTrocks]

Oh hey I’m actually here lol

[bboat11]

Feb 24, 2023 21:58:52 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

Oh hey I’m actually here lol

Good! Considering it is 20 degrees in Spokane right now, I can't possibly imagine it even being safe to leave the house in North Flopkota!!

[LBTrocks]

Feb 24, 2023 22:00:16 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Feb 24, 2023 21:58:52 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

Oh hey I’m actually here lol

Good! Considering it is 20 degrees in Spokane right now, I can't possibly imagine it even being safe to leave the house in North Flopkota!!

It's -2 here but we still go out if the wind chill is -60 so I'm just in cuz all my friends are either out of town, or busy lol. 

[bboat11]

Feb 24, 2023 22:01:09 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

Feb 24, 2023 22:00:16 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Good! Considering it is 20 degrees in Spokane right now, I can't possibly imagine it even being safe to leave the house in North Flopkota!!

It's -2 here but we still go out if the wind chill is -60 so I'm just in cuz all my friends are either out of town, or busy lol. 

Honestly that makes sense. Once you get down to about 10 degrees, anything lower is basically just the same thing.

[LBTrocks]

Feb 24, 2023 22:06:17 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Feb 24, 2023 22:01:09 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

It's -2 here but we still go out if the wind chill is -60 so I'm just in cuz all my friends are either out of town, or busy lol. 

Honestly that makes sense. Once you get down to about 10 degrees, anything lower is basically just the same thing.

Yeah we don't stay in cuz of the cold. Best place to be when its that cold is a nice warm bar lol, that's the ND way

[Darkest Hour]

[bboat11]

110. "EASY TONIGHT" - Niko Moon

Billboard Peak: #57

Total: 3274
Average: 93.54
Std Dev: 17.66 (6th smallest)


khan - 47

312999 - 51

raylatch98 - 61
nuggie99 - 61
HeyHeyHey - 67

wavey. - 73

austin - 81
bboat11 - 83
someguy - 86
George Strait Junkie - 89

Fanstar1 - 93
Kanenrá:ke - 94
🌺CountryLineDancer - 95
CoJoFan - 95
kw9461 - 96
LBTrocks - 96
SHOOTER - 97

superdave3556 - 101
fireflies - 101
castleoblivion26 - 101
Fire - 103
taylor is terrified - 103
wrip - 104
nathanalbright - 104
zaclord 🌈 - 105
Troublemaker - 106
zdm1998 - 107
bigd79 - 108
fearlessarrow - 108
Darkest Hour - 109
.indulgecountry - 109
bigfan101 - 110
gardyfan - 110
tim - 110
lady𝓐fan - 110



Cody Wants Out...
Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
5 Foot 9
7500 OBO
AA
All Too Well
At The End Of A Bar
Back Then, Right Now
Beach Boys
Beers On Me
Best Thing Since Backroads
Brown Eyes Baby
Bye Mom
Can’t Do Without Me
Catching Up With An Ol’ Memory
Circles Around This Town
Come Back As A Country Boy
Country On
Country’d Look Good On You
County Roads
Crazy One More Time (2022)
Damn Strait
Dates In Pickup Trucks
Doin’ This
Doing Life With Me
Don’t Come Lookin’
Down Home
Downtown Baby
Drinkin’ It Wrong
Everyone She Knows
Everything She Ain’t
Fall In Love
Fill Them Boots
First Taste Of Gone
Flower Shops
Gave It Back Broken
Ghost Story
Giving You Up
Good Day For Living
Growing Old With You
Half Of Me
Heart Like A Truck
HEARTFIRST
Hell Yeah
Holy Water
How You Make A Man
Human
I Bet You Think About Me
If I Was A Cowboy
If I Were Rock & Roll
Joy Of My Life
Keys To The Country
Kissed Me Like That
Last Night Lonely
Learn From It
Like I Love Country Music
Love Is Real
Love Talking
Man Made
Missing One
My Bar
Never Say Never
Never Til Now
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
New Truck
No Hard Feelings
Note To Self
Out In The Middle
Party Mode
Pass It On
Pick Me Up
Right On Time
Salt, Lime & Tequila
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
She Likes It
Should Have Known Better
Slide
Slow Down Summer
Something In The Orange
Son Of A
Son Of A Sinner
Songs About You
Soul
Steal My Love
Strange
Sunrise Tells The Story
Take It Slow
Take My Name
That’s What Tequila Does
The Kind Of Love We Make
The Last Time
Til You Can’t
Trouble With A Heartbreak
Truth About You
Up
Wasted On You
Wastin’ Whiskey
Water Under The Bridge
We Did
What A Song Can Do
What My World Spins Around
While You’re Gone
Whiskey On You
Wild Hearts
Wilder Days
Wishful Drinking
With A Woman You Love
You
You Ain’t Pretty
You Didn’t
You Proof

[SHOOTER]

POOR NIKO MOON.

JK.

[LBTrocks]

As awful as "EASY TONIGHT" is there was so much stinky trash in this RD that it managed to escape my 100s completely.

I think Niko is a fairly strong vocalist but he sings pure crap, lol.

[Darkest Hour]

Two top half ranks for Easy Tonight lol

It's better than his two songs in the last year's rankdown, but everything here still sounds cheap.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

I actually like the first 15 sec of this song, like the intro is really catchy. The rest is meh.

[bboat11]

As you can see from the trajectory graph (hopefully. I guess I shouldn't assume that everybody has graph skills, or make people feel judged if they don't), Niko Moon was a consistent bottom 2 contender, but he was definitely not consistently in last place! In fact, he only snuck back to last place with our very last list from LBTrocks. Mostly because he loved our primary last-place contender an inexplicable amount and saved it right at the end

I am actually surprised to see Niko be last place. As much as his general output sucks ass so far, I will be the first to admit that this chorus is ear candy. Take the verses away and just play the chorus, and give it to Brett Eldredge, this wouldn't even be a bottom 10 contender to most of you!