video review: '35 mph town' by toby keith

And so this happened. Goddamn, I really used to like this guy, shame how much his material has gotten this lazy.

Ah well, not sure what's next, but my first book To Kill A Dragon has just dropped on Amazon! Buy it, give it a read/review, and I'd be thrilled! Link here: http://www.amazon.com/To-Kill-Dragon-Mark-Grondin-ebook/dp/B016X1V2J2

album review: '35 mph town' by toby keith

I'm starting to think Toby Keith might have a problem.

And no, it has nothing to do with the asinine feud with the Dixie Chicks that was around a decade ago or any assumptions of political allegiance that lack basis in fact or the drunken concert incidents that would be a black mark on his career if it wasn't for the dozens of songs he's written about booze. No, this is a larger issue tied to his music: namely, its relevance.

See, as much as Toby Keith has criticized bro-country for its inability to take anything seriously or get political or real, it's hard not to look at the success Toby Keith has had in recent years and ignore the hypocrisy. As much as I might like Toby Keith - the guy has a lot of charisma, a ton of range as a performer both comedic and dramatic, and a knack for writing great hooks - it's hard for me to not look at his past few albums and see some of the laziness. This is his eighteenth album in twenty-two years, and at this point the sheer amount of filler and bad songs are starting to pile up and obscure the true gems. And look, I liked most of Drinks After Work when I reviewed it in 2013, but in retrospect outside of certain moments it was forgettable. And the frustrating fact is that I get the uncanny feeling Toby Keith knows that and just doesn't care like before. It's not like he's under any sort of pressure - he's on his own label and probably enough royalty money to easily coast, and for the life of me I have no idea what's inspiring him right now. He tried to get his daughter Krystal's career off the ground with an album he produced, but that went nowhere and I think I was one of the few people who cared enough to review it.

So maybe it's a good thing he's now working with Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark on his newest album, two songwriters I actually like and respect and the latter who dropped one of the best country albums of the 2010s thus far, at least for his leadoff single. I had hopes his newest album 35 MPH Town would at least be passable - did Toby Keith pull it off?

video review: 'drinks after work' by toby keith

Quite happy with this review, really think I articulated myself well-

NO, I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE EMINEM ALBUM YET, DEAL WITH IT! Next up is Avril and Celine!

album review: 'drinks after work' by toby keith

My name is Mark, I run the review show called Spectrum-Pulse... and I am a fan of Toby Keith.

And here's one of the infuriating things about being a fan of country music - every time I say this, people raise an eyebrow and they mutter, 'Is he serious?' And you know what, I'm goddamn sick of that, because believe it or not, what most people think they know about this guy is mostly untrue or based upon a skewed vision of the guy's music, and if you asked them to name a Toby Keith song outside of 'Red Solo Cup' or 'Courtesy of the Red, White, And Blue', you'd get a series of blank expressions.

Let's deal the elephant in the room first, shall we? First off, Toby Keith is not some hectoring Republican - he's always described himself as a Conservative democrat, a 'blue dog' if you will, and he's done a ton to support the troops, mostly because his father was an army veteran. When he wrote 'Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue' in the aftermath of 9/11 (a song that is lyrically clumsy, but not one I can hate because it's clear that it comes from a real, heartfelt place) and the death of his father, he actually refused to record a copy of it and only played it live. He only recorded a copy when he started to get a real emphatic reaction from his fans and the military at large - and then the whole Dixie Chicks feud happened and a lot of stupid was flung in both direction. For the record, though, Toby Keith is a better songwriter than the Dixie Chicks ever were, and he was actually the one who called off the feud, even if they were right in the end about Bush.

See, here's the thing that most people don't know - Toby Keith has been in the country music scene for about twenty years. He started off in the early 90s and had a steady string of hits on the country charts until his mainstream breakthrough in the late 90s and early 2000s. Primarily, his singles have been light, upbeat, self-aggrandizing and kind of jokey, and it helps that he's a clever enough songwriter who's able to laugh at himself. What's contributed to his longevity, however, is his emotional range and his skill as a songwriter - believe it or not, Toby Keith has had a huge hand in writing his material, often being one of the only songwriters on his tracks, and his work has spanned legitimate love songs, borderline comedy tracks, and his more serious work. Yes, he's got a penchant for staying on the right side of the law and he's a huge supporter of the army, but the funny thing is that he's a good enough songwriter and sings with enough conviction to bypass political biases, and he's thrown support to both Republicans and Democrats.

But Toby Keith is now 52, and while he's put out enough good-to-great albums to have the artistic clout he wants (it helps he runs his own small label under Universal), his voice has been added to the chorus of those who aren't all that pleased with the rise of bro-country. To quote directly, 'You hear the hip-hop thing start kicking in, and you start going, ‘Is that what we gotta do now to have a hit?’ I don’t know how to do that. Is that what I need every one of my songs to sound like now?…You start playing [deep songs] to a twenty-something audience, and it’s like, ‘Naw, man, there ain’t no mud on that tire. That ain’t about a Budweiser can. That ain’t about a chicken dancing out by the river. That ain’t about smoking a joint by the haystack. That’s about somebody dying and shit.’ Keep those thoughts in mind when you also consider that Toby Keith also had major writing credits on eleven of the thirteen songs on his newest album Drinks After Work. So you'd better bet I was intrigued, both as a fan of the guy and as someone who has kept a keen eye on the state of modern country - so, what did we get on Drinks After Work?

the top ten best hit songs of 2012

I've got to be honest here - when I wrote about the worst songs of 2012, I couldn't write about them all in one sitting. And it wasn't just because it was long and I needed a break - it was more because I got some damn depressed trying to parse my way through the worst of 2012's pop music that I needed some kind of break - any kind of break - just to reinvigorate my spirits.

Fortunately for me, I don't think I'll have that much of a problem here, because today we're going to look at the best of 2012 - which, if I'm being completely honest, was a really great year for the pop charts. It's not hard to see why, particularly if you look at the year in context with 2011. I've written before on the twin axes of pop music (here, if you're curious), which are maturity and intelligence. And while material tends to travel up and down these 'axes' in parallel, the collapse of club music in 2011 showed the first sign of a divergence in the pop music scene: music that was mature and intelligent, and music that was immature and stupid. 

Now, let me make this absolutely clear: you can have great pop music that is both immature and stupid, but in general, you tend to see greater quality, innovation, and interesting breakthroughs with music that's smarter and more mature because the subject area is broader and the people crafting the music tend to be more insightful. And I'm not confining this to genre either: just because an act is country or crunk doesn't mean they don't have some wry intelligence, and just because an act is indie rock doesn't mean they're all that deep or insightful or mature.

And since I'm a fan of great pop music, I was thrilled to see this axis divergence, and even more thrilled to see a ton of great pop music spring up from the doldrums of the club music scene. And as much as I'd like to shout praise to the heavens for the indie rock explosion that saw plenty of extremely solid acts rocket to the top, I can't help but acknowledge that there were great country, hip-hop, rap, and even mainstream pop acts that surprised me with their quality.

But before I get in all that deep into the material from this year, let's quickly revisit my list of best hit songs from 2011:

10. 'Jar Of Hearts' by Christina Perri
9. 'Fucking Perfect' by Pink
8. 'Coming Home' by Diddy - Dirty Money ft. Skylar Grey
7. 'All Of The Lights' by Kanye West
6. 'The Show Goes On' by Lupe Fiasco
5. 'You And I' by Lady Gaga
4. 'Fuck You' by Cee Lo Green
3. 'Rolling In The Deep' by Adele
2. 'Someone Like You' by Adele
1. 'Colder Weather' by The Zac Brown Band

And, as usual, upon reflection, I'd probably make a few changes to this list:


10. 'Jar Of Hearts' by Christina Perri 'Stereo Hearts' by The Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine
9. 'Fucking Perfect' by Pink 'Back To December' by Taylor Swift 
8. 'Coming Home' by Diddy - Dirty Money ft. Skylar Grey 'Blow' by Ke$ha
7. 'All Of The Lights' by Kanye West
6. 'The Show Goes On' by Lupe Fiasco
5. 'You And I' by Lady Gaga
4. 'Fuck You' by Cee Lo Green
3. 'Rolling In The Deep' by Adele
2. 'Someone Like You' by Adele
1. 'Colder Weather' by The Zac Brown Band

Huh, not that many changes, really. Part of that is an indictment on how great all of these songs are, but part of it is also the fact that all of these songs represented the best of their genres and the best of growing trends on the charts. 

And if I'm being completely blunt, I don't know what part of my mind thought it was a good idea to put both 'Jar Of Hearts' (a song I've really soured on in recent months) and 'Fucking Perfect' (which has worn out a fair bit of its welcome) on the list, and it wasn't hard to swap them out for 'Stereo Hearts' (a song that grew on me due to some clever metaphors and an incredibly catchy chorus courtesy of Adam Levine at his best) and 'Blow' (a song that has problems, to be sure, but builds surprisingly well and is punchy enough to be a damn great dance/work-out track). And really, 'Coming Home' isn't a bad track in the slightest, but 'Back To December' is really so much better, and probably Taylor Swift's best song by far.

And with that, let's proceed to 2012, and some Honourable Mentions: