2022 Country Rankdown (Revealing!)

[bigfan101]

Mar 9, 2023 20:13:59 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

I genuinely cannot believe that a vocal masterpiece like "Gave It Back Broken" could rake in the low ranks while a different ballad with literally nothing engaging about it whatsoever can get a free pass directly to the top half for basically the entire submission process....

I have liked Ashley Cooke's output so far, but there is literally nothing noteworthy about this one. The only praise it deserves is that it isn't quite as nap-worthy as "Joy of My Life", but even then it's REALLY close.

You need to chill with the slander of this song. 😂

Ashley Cooke mayyyyy be my favorite of the new batch of females coming in.

‘Running Back’ is an incredibly cool lyric….should have been the next single.

[fearlessarrow]

Mar 9, 2023 21:44:05 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Lol @ "Nap of My Life." It truly was such a head-scratching single choice.

Even as someone who enjoys "Joy of My Life", it being a single was strange. I think it was streaming well iirc so I guess that's the reason but I definitely think as a radio single they should've gone with something else. Not everything that is a streaming hit (in relative terms compared to other album tracks) is fit to be a radio single, especially from someone like Chris Stapleton who is pretty established at radio at this point.

[Kanenrá:ke]

Mar 9, 2023 21:24:13 GMT -5 taylor is terrified said:

I’m convinced you either love Chris Stapleton or despise him, lmao. I’m in the former club.

I love him in almost ever other case (and I don't hate this), but it is incredibly boring.

Mar 10, 2023 7:28:24 GMT -5 fearlessarrow said:

Mar 9, 2023 21:44:05 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Lol @ "Nap of My Life." It truly was such a head-scratching single choice.

Even as someone who enjoys "Joy of My Life", it being a single was strange. I think it was streaming well iirc so I guess that's the reason but I definitely think as a radio single they should've gone with something else. Not everything that is a streaming hit (in relative terms compared to other album tracks) is fit to be a radio single, especially from someone like Chris Stapleton who is pretty established at radio at this point.

It was streaming well, which I wonder if it's because it is a cover? I know a few people who love the original and they had been excited to hear Chris' cover.

I know there was a story that the label wanted "Maggie's Song" as a single but Chris' refused to release that one because it was too sad to have to sing every night.

---

As for these reveals

101. "Never Til Now" - This is borderline hate, they sound nice and there's nothing done "wrong" here so I saved it from my lowest category and instead is in "Passable Filler"... But my lord it's one of if not the most boring single I've heard in years. Possibly ever.

69. "Joy Of My Life" - As I said above this is really boring as well...however Chris can always elevate material for me and he does so here enough to make it much further than Ashley & Brett did. 

64. "You Didn't" - It's not that interesting outside a nice vocal and pretty melody. Having heard it more than enough times now I can't actually tell you what it's about without having to relisten to it. The Lyrics don't stick in my mind at all.

39. "Beers On Me" - Despite it ripping off "Gone" I do like this. It's not Dierks at his best or anything but even his more throw away singles are usually winners for me.

33. "Missing One" - Easily Jameson's best single, the melody is great, he is vocally engaged with the lyrics and it just sounds like a smash...and of course it flopped lol

[LBTrocks]

Brett Young absolutely ruins "Never Til Now" for me. I LOVE the song but don't use this version, ever. Thank goodness she has a solo one.

"You Didn't" is simply a terrible song. Also, have I mentioned recently how much I detest Brett Young's voice?

"Missing One" is the best thing I've heard from Jameson Rodgers, actually it is the only thing that hasn't been bad lol

Also HOW is "Songs About You" still in this?!? That is one of the worst things I've ever heard in my entire life! Brett Eldridge also sounds absolutely horrific on it, especially in the chorus. At this point, he's definitely cemented himself as one of my most detested males in the genre.

[khan]

Hey maybe sometimes I want to nap

[bboat11]

50. "5 Foot 9" - Tyler Hubbard

Billboard Peak: #1

 

Total: 1950

Average: 55.71

Std Dev: 30.87

Fire - 7
CoJoFan - 8

fireflies - 12
🌺CountryLineDancer - 12
zdm1998 - 18

raylatch98 - 21
bboat11 - 21
nathanalbright - 27
bigd79 - 28

zaclord 🌈 - 31
fearlessarrow - 34
gardyfan - 40

.indulgecountry - 46
tim - 46
bigfan101 - 48

superdave3556 - 51
castleoblivion26 - 51
someguy - 53
wavey. - 57
Kanenrá:ke - 58
Troublemaker - 58

HeyHeyHey - 61

kw9461 - 71
Darkest Hour - 75
khan - 78
SHOOTER - 78

lady𝓐fan - 81
taylor is terrified - 81
LBTrocks - 85

wrip - 94
312999 - 99

Fanstar1 - 101
George Strait Junkie - 103
austin - 108
nuggie99 - 108

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
7500 OBO
All Too Well
At The End Of A Bar
Back Then, Right Now
Brown Eyes Baby
Bye Mom
Circles Around This Town
Damn Strait
Doin’ This
Doing Life With Me
Don’t Come Lookin’
Down Home
Everyone She Knows
Everything She Ain’t
Fall In Love
Flower Shops
Ghost Story
Good Day For Living
Half Of Me
Heart Like A Truck
HEARTFIRST
Holy Water
Human
I Bet You Think About Me
If I Was A Cowboy
Last Night Lonely
Like I Love Country Music
Never Say Never
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
Note To Self
Pick Me Up
Right On Time
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Slow Down Summer
Something In The Orange
Son Of A Sinner
Songs About You
Strange
Sunrise Tells The Story
The Kind Of Love We Make
The Last Time
Til You Can’t
What A Song Can Do
What My World Spins Around
Whiskey On You
Wild Hearts
Wilder Days
Wishful Drinking
With A Woman You Love

[raylatch98]

One thing that makes me like "5 Foot 9" is that there is an odd sincerity to it I like. Feels like a standard country love song than a bro-country reject and I have come around on Tyler's Hubbard vocals in recent years. 

That being said, radio can hold off on playing this for a few weeks as one of my stations still play it like a Top 5 song on radio. Still like the song though.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

"5 Foot 9" is a pleasant listen. Kinda dumb lyrics but great production. The more I listened to it, the more I dug. Better than most of the late FGL’s materials.

[bboat11]

Well I know some of you will be happy to see "5 Foot 9" finally leaving! However, this was a pretty regular top 40 and even brief top 30 contender for much of the rankdown, before a lot of the lower ranks started coming in the second half.

This song actually is not nearly as bad as some of you make it sound, lmao. Like, I'd easily put this above anything that FGL ever recorded. I find the overall premise to be pretty sweet, and the melody and arrangement are quite engaging! I get that Tyler Hubbard's voice isn't for everyone, but I personally think he sounds better on this one that actually has quite a few country elements than he ever did on FGL's more heavily processed materials.

[bboat11]

49. "Songs About You" - Brett Eldredge

Billboard Peak: #38

 

Total: 1869

Average: 53.4

Std Dev: 28.76

wrip - 8

HeyHeyHey - 11
raylatch98 - 14
312999 - 14
Darkest Hour - 16
Fanstar1 - 16
Troublemaker - 18

fearlessarrow - 24

Fire - 32
gardyfan - 38
austin - 38

SHOOTER - 43
lady𝓐fan - 46
🌺CountryLineDancer - 48
superdave3556 - 48
kw9461 - 49
bigfan101 - 50
someguy - 50

zaclord 🌈 - 55
khan - 57
taylor is terrified - 58
tim - 59
Kanenrá:ke - 59
bigd79 - 60

bboat11 - 67

castleoblivion26 - 71
George Strait Junkie - 71
nathanalbright - 76
fireflies - 80

nuggie99 - 82

.indulgecountry - 93
wavey. - 100

zdm1998 - 102
CoJoFan - 107
LBTrocks - 109

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}7500 OBO
All Too Well
At The End Of A Bar
Back Then, Right Now
Brown Eyes Baby
Bye Mom
Circles Around This Town
Damn Strait
Doin’ This
Doing Life With Me
Don’t Come Lookin’
Down Home
Everyone She Knows
Everything She Ain’t
Fall In Love
Flower Shops
Ghost Story
Good Day For Living
Half Of Me
Heart Like A Truck
HEARTFIRST
Holy Water
Human
I Bet You Think About Me
If I Was A Cowboy
Last Night Lonely
Like I Love Country Music
Never Say Never
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
Note To Self
Pick Me Up
Right On Time
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Slow Down Summer
Something In The Orange
Son Of A Sinner
Strange
Sunrise Tells The Story
The Kind Of Love We Make
The Last Time
Til You Can’t
What A Song Can Do
What My World Spins Around
Whiskey On You
Wild Hearts
Wilder Days
Wishful Drinking
With A Woman You Love

[raylatch98]

I get that Brett Eldredge isn't everyone's cup of tea but I find the dude insanely talented and his last two albums have been awesome really showcasing his strong vocals, still wish this was released to radio instead as it is my favorite from his last album.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

"Songs About You" has a good melody! It maybe a little mediocre, but I don’t really get the strong hate for it. Want That Back smashes but I guess it wasn’t a fit for the radio.

[bboat11]

This song ain't bad, but I am still absolutely baffled by Brett Eldredge's surge in popularity on Pulse the last couple years Like, "not bad" would be a sentence to end up in the 60s/70s for most artists that have his background of bro-country blandness. And yet the last few years now he has been a top 30 contender who barely manages to fall in to the 40s by the end of the submission process. It would make sense if his music was genuinely revolutionary, like Jason Aldean suddenly doing well with "If I Didn't Love You" last year. But his music has literally just stopped being terrible, and some of y'all now treat him better than George Strait in these year-end rankdowns

[bboat11]

48. "Something In The Orange" - Zach Bryan

Billboard Peak: #27

 

Total: 1823

Average: 52.09

Std Dev: 40.01 (Largest!!!)

312999 - 1
Fanstar1 - 2
khan - 2
fearlessarrow - 3
tim - 3
wrip - 6
Darkest Hour - 6
Fire - 6

Troublemaker - 15
someguy - 15
HeyHeyHey - 16

raylatch98 - 26

bigfan101 - 31
lady𝓐fan - 35
Kanenrá:ke - 35
gardyfan - 36
taylor is terrified - 37

nuggie99 - 42
castleoblivion26 - 48

austin - 61
nathanalbright - 63
George Strait Junkie - 69

CoJoFan - 74
superdave3556 - 78
zdm1998 - 79

zaclord 🌈 - 83

fireflies - 98

.indulgecountry - 104
kw9461 - 105
bigd79 - 105
SHOOTER - 106
🌺CountryLineDancer - 106
wavey. - 108
bboat11 - 109
LBTrocks - 110

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}7500 OBO
All Too Well
At The End Of A Bar
Back Then, Right Now
Brown Eyes Baby
Bye Mom
Circles Around This Town
Damn Strait
Doin’ This
Doing Life With Me
Don’t Come Lookin’
Down Home
Everyone She Knows
Everything She Ain’t
Fall In Love
Flower Shops
Ghost Story
Good Day For Living
Half Of Me
Heart Like A Truck
HEARTFIRST
Holy Water
Human
I Bet You Think About Me
If I Was A Cowboy
Last Night Lonely
Like I Love Country Music
Never Say Never
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
Note To Self
Pick Me Up
Right On Time
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Slow Down Summer
Son Of A Sinner
Strange
Sunrise Tells The Story
The Kind Of Love We Make
The Last Time
Til You Can’t
What A Song Can Do
What My World Spins Around
Whiskey On You
Wild Hearts
Wilder Days
Wishful Drinking
With A Woman You Love

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Good riddance. I just don't like the production and vocal of this song, and the same can be said to most of his songs. I generally don't like less produced, stripped version of songs, and it is worse when the singer does not have a strong vocal ability. I don't mind the writing of the song itself, so for most of his outputs, I have been trying to find the cover version with more enhanced production and vocals.

[bboat11]

THERE IT IS!!!! "Something In The Orange" takes with it a WAVE of top 3 ranks from tim , fearlessarrow , khan , Fanstar1 , and a #1 loss from 312999 . At the same time, with an equal amount of top 10 and bottom 10 ranks, there was never any question that this was going to be our most polarizing song.

I've thrown plenty of shade at Zach Bryan, and his fans probably are tired of it, but I mean.... If every note you sing is an approximation of a pitch, you don't need to have a career as a primary recording artist... Y'all need to stop enabling him.

[taylor is terrified]

This song is really something. I find that I have to be in a certain mood to willingly listen to it, so I’m not quite so enthused as everyone else, but I also don’t hate it like everyone else on the tractor field does. When you whittle away all the bland male country music from this year, this imo comes away as easily among the best of the men, and one of the best of the year overall.

[raylatch98]

I am just gonna say the stanning of Zach Bryan and treating him like the Dolly Parton of singers and the absolute loathing of how he is a no good talentless hack who couldn't sing out of a paper sack is both ridiculous. I like the song, not afraid to admit it, but both sides of the spectrum are so over the top with their love/hate with this song. If someone likes it more power to them, and same goes the other way.

Just feels like there's an odd anger with this song on either end.

[khan]

Dang I thought the amount of Zach Bryan antis on Pulse were being way overexaggerated but it really did happen :c I'm just glad this was able to become the big hit it has become at all, though.

[312999]

There goes my closeness average with the last few reveals.

[Troublemaker]

I love Zach mostly because he has taken an unconventional route to where he is right now and is pretty successful.
Let’s just say that the first time I heard his music I thought something was wrong with my headphones.

[312999]

Also I usually don’t like Brett Eldridge and his songs, especially his voice, but surprisingly, Songs About You was pretty great and I enjoyed it.

[bboat11]

47. "Don't Come Lookin'" - Jackson Dean

Billboard Peak: #3

 

Total: 1818

Average: 51.94

Std Dev: 31.73 (8th largest)

nuggie99 - 7
LBTrocks - 7
khan - 8
HeyHeyHey - 10

312999 - 11
austin - 16
nathanalbright - 18
Darkest Hour - 19

SHOOTER - 21
George Strait Junkie - 29

tim - 31
someguy - 37
Kanenrá:ke - 39
castleoblivion26 - 40

bigd79 - 43
.indulgecountry - 44
fearlessarrow - 45
wrip - 45
gardyfan - 47
CoJoFan - 49

wavey. - 51
taylor is terrified - 57

Troublemaker - 65

kw9461 - 72
superdave3556 - 79

fireflies - 82
Fanstar1 - 85
lady𝓐fan - 88
bboat11 - 88

Fire - 91
bigfan101 - 91
zdm1998 - 95
🌺CountryLineDancer - 100

raylatch98 - 102
zaclord 🌈 - 106

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}7500 OBO
All Too Well
At The End Of A Bar
Back Then, Right Now
Brown Eyes Baby
Bye Mom
Circles Around This Town
Damn Strait
Doin’ This
Doing Life With Me
Down Home
Everyone She Knows
Everything She Ain’t
Fall In Love
Flower Shops
Ghost Story
Good Day For Living
Half Of Me
Heart Like A Truck
HEARTFIRST
Holy Water
Human
I Bet You Think About Me
If I Was A Cowboy
Last Night Lonely
Like I Love Country Music
Never Say Never
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
Note To Self
Pick Me Up
Right On Time
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Slow Down Summer
Son Of A Sinner
Strange
Sunrise Tells The Story
The Kind Of Love We Make
The Last Time
Til You Can’t
What A Song Can Do
What My World Spins Around
Whiskey On You
Wild Hearts
Wilder Days
Wishful Drinking
With A Woman You Love

[.indulgecountry]

Omg this is amazing. I thought this would do so much better. Hallelujah! Day made. 🙏😍

ETA: That was about Orange

[Troublemaker]

Mar 12, 2023 16:56:41 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

I am just gonna say the stanning of Zach Bryan and treating him like the Dolly Parton of singers and the absolute loathing of how he is a no good talentless hack who couldn't sing out of a paper sack is both ridiculous.

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Oh good! I don’t hate this song like I used to, but still don’t dig the melody or production. His vocal is not bad, and I know he is pretty unique compare with other males, but he just brought something new that I didn’t order to the table after all.

[bboat11]

I'm a little surprised "Don't Come Lookin'" managed to do this well. Pulse has a pretty limited tolerance for this more "Southern Gothic" vibe, and the fact that Jackson Dean is a nobody with nothing else to really compare his output to, I figured this wouldn't be nearly this well-received. It'll probably keep growing on me, but personally this one doesn't hit as hard as "Holy Water" in this same rankdown.

[zdm1998]

Feel like Zach Bryan is either you love him or hate him. I personally just can’t deal with his voice, it’s just not my type.

[bboat11]

46. "Wild Hearts" - Keith Urban

Billboard Peak: #4

 

Total: 1797

Average: 51.34

Std Dev: 26.95

nathanalbright - 5

CoJoFan - 12
castleoblivion26 - 20
bigd79 - 20

Fire - 23
wrip - 25
raylatch98 - 25
someguy - 27
superdave3556 - 28

LBTrocks - 31
Troublemaker - 32
taylor is terrified - 34
SHOOTER - 35

austin - 41
gardyfan - 44
bigfan101 - 44
Kanenrá:ke - 47
bboat11 - 47

wavey. - 52
312999 - 55
lady𝓐fan - 55
.indulgecountry - 57
tim - 58
zaclord 🌈 - 58
zdm1998 - 59

kw9461 - 67

Darkest Hour - 71
fireflies - 74
fearlessarrow - 80

HeyHeyHey - 85
Fanstar1 - 86

🌺CountryLineDancer - 92
George Strait Junkie - 99

khan - 102
nuggie99 - 107

Cody Wants Out...

Gonza'90

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}7500 OBO
All Too Well
At The End Of A Bar
Back Then, Right Now
Brown Eyes Baby
Bye Mom
Circles Around This Town
Damn Strait
Doin’ This
Doing Life With Me
Down Home
Everyone She Knows
Everything She Ain’t
Fall In Love
Flower Shops
Ghost Story
Good Day For Living
Half Of Me
Heart Like A Truck
HEARTFIRST
Holy Water
Human
I Bet You Think About Me
If I Was A Cowboy
Last Night Lonely
Like I Love Country Music
Never Say Never
Never Wanted To Be That Girl
Note To Self
Pick Me Up
Right On Time
She Had Me At Heads Carolina
Slow Down Summer
Son Of A Sinner
Strange
Sunrise Tells The Story
The Kind Of Love We Make
The Last Time
Til You Can’t
What A Song Can Do
What My World Spins Around
Whiskey On You
Wilder Days
Wishful Drinking
With A Woman You Love

[🌺CountryLineDancer]

Correct Keith Urban song left first.