video review: 'suffer in peace' by tyler farr

Not a great record, but I am glad I covered this. Nice to see one bro-country artist actually improving and who might have a career after this mess.

Next up... well, stay tuned within the hour, it's rendering now!

album review: 'suffer in peace' by tyler farr

You know, it's always a little fascinating to see what happens to certain artists after the trend they rode to stardom falters or fails completely. In many cases, the artists simply drop off the radar entirely, especially if they were transparently a product of the label looking to cash in. Sometimes they'll stick around for one more awkward, uncomfortable album trying to find footing with the same formula, only to be looked upon as has-beens. Some, especially if they jumped on the trend midway through their careers, will simply go back to what they did normally, with singles from that trendier record hastily wiped from memory and any live shows. And yet sometimes you get artists who are able to roll with the punches, start off riding a trend and yet able to transcend it and become staples of the genre.

And here's the thing: you can't assume that it's just the ones that'll be the most successful that'll end up in the last category. Let's be honest, what gets popular isn't always the material with the most quality, but with the most definitive image or flash or energy, and those seldom translate well into the long term, especially if your artistic persona is so tied to that image. As such, it's typically the artists that are a little more restrained or in control of that image that can ride their debuts to greater success - or, of course, if you actually a distinctive artistic identity, but that might be hoping for too much.

But could I be wrong here? For an example, let's consider Tyler Farr, a definitive b-lister in the bro-country scene who released Redneck Crazy in 2013 in the heat of the craze and rode the absolutely terrible titular single to nearly the top of the charts. Now I reviewed that album and I remember not being kind to it, but truth be told, I can barely remember that album at all. I remember the singles and i remember thinking that Tyler Farr had a good enough voice to do well - turns out the guy had classical training, which is uncommon to see in country music - but his material often came across leering and creepy when it wasn't boring and forgettable. Coupled with production that was all over the place, I was prepared to write Tyler Farr off... but then I heard his lead-off single 'A Guy Walks Into A Bar', and I was struck by its intensity and frustration, and the realization that gruff anger might actually be a solid fit for the guy. And considering rumors that this record was supposed to be a little rougher and heavier, I was actually interested in covering him, whereas you couldn't convince me to cover a sophomore record to other bro-country acts like Thomas Rhett or Cole Swindell. So what did we get with Suffer In Peace?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 17, 2015 (VIDEO)

Dear god, this was a rough week - although, bizarrely, nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. Let's hope for the best next week, where I have a very manageable number of album reviews and I'm expecting to deal with the extended aftermath of Rae Sremmurd. Lovely. Either way, stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 17, 2015

So once again this week we're dealing with the last fragments of 2014, even as the new hits of 2015 begin to rise up the charts. And yet even despite the turnover to a new #1 - trust me, we'll get to it, I'm as excited as anyone - I can't help but look down past the justly deserved gains and see a whole load of crap bubbling up to the surface. Folks, there are some bad songs that dropped this week, and believe me, it's not going to be pretty cleaning them out.

video review: 'redneck crazy' by tyler farr

So yeah, another day, another mostly mediocre bro-country act. Man, this one was a chore to get through.

Next up is the big one: Miley Cyrus. Stay tuned, folks, this could get ugly.

album review: 'redneck crazy' by tyler farr

We return - again - to country music, where things have certainly escalated.

When I originally wrote my Special Comment on the state of modern country music, I did not expect the response I got. I expected maybe a bit of praise, a larger bit of hatred as a holdover from the Justin Moore review (keep the hatred coming, folks, I can take it), and then for it to sink like a stone. I did not expect to be pointed towards a growing contingent who are growing very angry about the state of modern country music, or to discover the country music feuds to be heating up in a big way with more and more stars taking sides, and then to be contacted directly by the country music correspondent from Entertainment Weekly! Suddenly, I was inundated by country music news and links to underground country acts that I'm excited to explore, and it appears my Special Comment may just be one of many from mainstream publications talking about and analyzing this issue. A feud within country music hasn't been this enflamed since the 2000s, and with the rise of social media and instant responses, I can see this blowing up in a big way.

But let me make this part absolutely clear: I'm still a music critic and not a gossip columnist, and my job is not to get involved in the drama of the stars or their various feuds. I definitely stand by my criticism of certain other online critics for their refusal to cover country music on narrow-minded genre classifications, but I've found good music in traditional and neotraditional country music, and I've even managed to find good stuff in the pop-country and bro-country subgenres as well. Admittedly, I've got more of a pop sensibility than most, but good music is good music, and as long as I can defend my critical opinions, I'm gong to be fair with my coverage regardless of genre.

So when I heard about the rumblings against Tyler Farr's debut bro-country album Redneck Crazy, I took a deep breath and kept my senses. Sure, the guy has basically come out of nowhere and had a criminally underwritten Wikipedia page, but maybe the hatred was overblown, right?