video review: 'magnolia' by randy houser

So I have no goddamn clue where this came from, but it's awesome - go hear it, I want this to be a hit, goddamn it.

Next up, let's go to Bandcamp for something that emphatically will not be a hit, shall we...

album review: 'magnolia' by randy houser

You know, it feels a little weird that this the first time I'm speaking at length about Randy Houser - but also not all that surprising if you've been aware of the mainstream country ecosystem outside of the biggest stars. And indeed, Randy Houser has been a prominent opening act for many of those stars over the past decade with a fair few hits of his own, so what is holding him back from the big leagues?

Well, in preparation for this I relistened to his entire back catalog and the first thing to note is that as a performer and presence within country, he's long been on the cusp of entering that category - hell, if you just listen to his tremendous vocal chops, you'd think he'd already be there. And like many aspiring acts, he worked behind the scenes as a songwriter in the mid-to-late 2000s... and the less said about some of his breakthrough writing credits, the better. But he accrued some solid writing credits for his second album on Toby Keith's Show Dog-Universal which translated to a pretty good album in They Call Me Cadillac... that went precisely nowhere, so he left and signed to Stoney Creek and began seeing real success in the 2013 bro-country wave. And I'll put Randy Houser in the same category as guys like Chris Young: a little older, presumably a little wiser, able to bring a shade more gravitas to otherwise pretty disposable lyrics in the trend, generally a cut above if not precisely great. But bro-country was never built to last, and while the full force of it was placed behind his 2016 album Fired Up, it only produced one hit and only exposed the larger conundrum with Houser: a great singer, sure, but if the compositions and production weren't there to provide him foundation or richer country tones, it didn't turn out well. I'll give him a few points for avoiding the forgettable pop-adjacent pablum that Chris Young started shoveling out, but I'll admit some concern about this newest project. For one, it had been pushed back from its November release date last year, and for another, while I did appreciate Houser taking a much greater role in the writing process, I was a bit concerned he was co-producing this project too, a first for him and reportedly paid for by him too so could ensure the sound he wanted. Thankfully, he had recruited his old collaborator and veteran of both mainstream and indie scenes Keith Gattis to assist - seriously, he's worked with everyone from George Strait to Randy Travis, Wade Bowen to Jon Pardi, all the Pistol Annies to Brandy Clark - so this could be the pivot that Randy Houser needs to stand out, so what did we get with Magnolia?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - november 21, 2015 (VIDEO)

And just think of it, the day after I try to edit a video down just below fifteen minutes, the copyright strike is retracted. GAH.

Anyway, next up is Grimes, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - november 21, 2015

No time for introductions this week - busy week, we'll get to more details surrounding the influx of new country when we get to it, if I want to keep this episode under fifteen minutes because of this goddamn copyright strike, gonna have to go fast!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 20, 2014 (VIDEO)

Much easier to edit this one - which was a welcome shift, these videos take forever.

Okay, let's see how much I can get through before the end of the year. Nicki Minaj, Charli XCX, Ariel Pink, and PRhyme for sure, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 20, 2014

For this episode of Billboard BREAKDOWN, we've actually got a bit of a slower week as the holiday season comes even closer and major releases begin to slow down. This leads to a bit of an odd week, with major chart movement linked most to old songs being rotated out, the shift back to equilibrium after the American Music Awards last week that gave several songs a boost they subsequently lost, and the creeping dominance of The Voice as it heads towards its final episodes.