From country rap to pop-country crap, there was an especially long list of dreadfully bad country albums released in 2010. Here’s a countdown of ten of the worst offenders.
#10. Kenny Chesney – Hemingway’s Whiskey
It seems like every time Kenny Chesney releases an album, there’s a swell of hype about how the singer retreated from the road, recharged his batteries and produced something fresher and more artistically credible than whatever he recorded last time. Then the album drops, and we realize that every Chesney album is basically the same. Appearances by Grace Potter and George Jones can’t save this collection of mediocre songs, which even includes the most mediocre Matraca Berg tune (“You and Tequila”) I’ve ever heard.
#9. Alan Jackson – Freight Train
Is Alan Jackson even trying anymore? These songs are rote and lazily written, and the once sincere artist sings them with great disinterest. Fans and country radio noticed, making Freight Train Jackson’s first album to fall short of #1 since 1999’s Under The Influence. It will also likely be the only of his studios albums (aside from Precious Memories, his gospel album) to fail produce a Top 10 single.
#8. Laura Bell Bundy – The Shakin’ side of Achin’ & Shakin’
The first half of Bundy’s album—the Achin’ side—is a stunning collection comprised of six excellent ballads lovingly produced by Nathan Chapman. But the Shakin’ side (produced by Mike Shimshack) is a complete and unmitigated disaster. Shimshack’s production is meandering and gimmicky, while Bundy’s voice sounds tinnier and shriller than it should. And the songs—three of which were co-written by Shimshack—sound like they were culled from a poorly written Broadway musical.
#7. Danny Gokey – My Best Days
I’m not sure anyone really bought the idea of American Idol castoff Danny Gokey as a country singer, including Gokey himself. The result of the experiment is an awkward release that fails in both concept and execution. On My Best Days, Gokey sounds uncomfortable as he works his way through ten poppy contemporary country songs that seem ill-fitted to his soulful voice. That discomfort is a weird contrast to his songs’ unrelentingly upbeat themes.
#6. Lady Antebellum – Need You Now
“Need You Now” is the best pop song of the year, but the rest of Lady Antebellum’s sophomore album is comprised of tragically forgettable pop-country that lacks the chemistry and immediacy of that career-making cut. Need You Now sounds big, glossy and expensive, and that fact somewhat hides just how truly lackluster these songs are. Beyond the title track (which opens the record), the rest of the material bleeds together—there’s little imagery and nary a hook to be found. “Need You Now” begs for attention, but the rest just fades into the background.
#5. Bomshel – Fight Like a Girl
Five years after its inception, Bomshel (formerly BOMSHEL) finally released an album. Unfortunately, this is one case where Curb Records might have been justified in keeping the record out of the public’s hands. Fight Like a Girl is a dismal, over-processed album full of a type of heavy-handed inspirationalism that’s typically reserved for greeting cards.
#4. Coal Miner’s Daughter – A Tribue to Loretta Lynn
An artist of Loretta Lynn’s iconic stature is certainly worthy of tribute, but this is not a worthy tribute. The disc opens with Gretchen Wilson singing “Don’t Come Home Drinkin’,” a perplexing song-to-artist pairing considering that Wilson’s career has notably celebrated drinking. From there, a series of superstars (including Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson and Reba) strut out timid and visionless covers of some of Lynn’s most beloved songs. Lynn’s music is full of spunk and spirit, but this safe and sleepy collection contains little of either. It’s worth noting that independent artist Eilen Jewell also released a (far superior) Lynn tribute in 2010, titled Butcher Holler.
#3. Trace Adkins – Cowboy’s Back in Town
Cowboy’s Back In Town opens with a song that mimics ‘70s porn music, and closes with a track titled “Whoop A Man’s Ass.” Between those two awful cuts, the album is consistently ridiculous. Songs like “Ala-Freakin-Bama,” “Hold My Beer” and “Hell, I Can Do That” demonstrate just how dumb country music can be, and Adkins—whose previous album Ten was a milestone—seems completely disinterested. Can you blame him? This material is embarrassing compared to his best work.
#2. Lonestar – Party Heard Around The World
Lonestar snags the award for “misnomer of the year,” as this album was neither a party, nor heard around the world. If you missed it, don’t worry—song titles like “Beat (I Can Feel Your Heart),” “Live, Laugh & Love,” “You’re The Reason Why” and “Making Memories” tell you all you need to know about this dreadfully boring affair; it’s cheesy, cheap and full to the brim with clichés. If this record is an indication of the band’s future output, it would be best for them to part ways before destroying whatever is left of Lonestar’s somewhat respectable legacy.
#1. Colt Ford – Chicken & Biscuits
Colt Ford’s songs thrive on the glorification off asinine southern stereotypes, but Chicken and Biscuits is a terrible album because the man is a talentless rapper. Ford’s rhymes are embarrassingly amateurish and his delivery is almost a caricature of actual rap, lacking variation, skill and nuance. Then again, what’s more endearing than comparing your lover to fried poultry?
Also read:
Top 10 Country Music Albums of 2010
10 Worst Country Albums of 2010
Something about Lonestar releasing an album called “Party Heard Around the World” seems disturbing. Isn’t this a band of 40-something men who pioneering the sippy-cup country subgenre? Sounds like their version of “Turn On the Radio,” only country radio didn’t bite on it.
It was way, way worse than “Turn on the Radio.”
Good list, but it’s missing Sugarland. Worst pile of tripe I’ve been victim to all year…
Regardless of the quality of The Incredible Machine, who here thinks it belong on a list of country albums? That record didn’t even try to be country.
I would have included the Sugarland album since they still market as country for some reason. I’d just mark points off for not being country when they claim that it is.
I can’t argue with half of this list, but I liked the Loretta tribute better than I thought I would and I really like the Jackson album. I haven’t heard a couple of these albums though.
If Speak Now is country enough for the “best” list, The Incredible Machine is country enough for the “worst” list. (I’ll add that I love Speak Now, so that’s not a jab at it or its inclusion on any list.) Otherwise, I pretty much agree with the choices here.
Would have definitely put Swifty and Sugarland (and I like Sugarland’s past stuff) on here.
Gokey’s album was actually a lot better than I thought it would be- the single (Goodbye) that fell off the charts was a good song.
I like Freight Train.
I won a copy of the Alan Jackson album and after a couple of listen throughs I lost interest. A couple of decent songs don’t an album make. Its the only album on this list I’ve actually heard and feel it belongs here.
I think Laura Bell Bundy is adorable but her vocals just don’t do anything for me, even on the slow songs. I find her delivery still sounds too “Broadway”…
The unreleased original BOMSHEL album featuring Buffy Lawson contains some real kick-ass, rockin’ country songs that are unique and interesting. I highly recommend acquiring the “Tequila Rose Presents” EP which contains four of those original songs if one can be located. Kelley has a nice pop country voice but the production approach of the revised Bomshel was Top 40 contemporary mish-mash in the extreme. Oh well.
I don’t watch A.I. but Danny Gokey was on the Opry recently and he does have a nice, mellow, soulful voice. He’s a nice voice badly in need of great songs and a producer that knows what to do with them.
Colt Ford is unbearable when he’s rapping and is the worst part of his act! He needs to fire himself if he’s to have any kind of success, other than being an inside joke live act popular with excessive boozers.
I’m in moderate disagreement with this list.
Firstly, I can sympathize with why you chose to include Alan Jackson’s latest release in this countdown, because in my opinion it really is a shadow of his former artistic output. Even so, I wouldn’t include it in my Top Ten as I still find a mediocre Jackson to be better than plenty more than ten of his peers in their typical form. The album also bolsters a handful of quality cuts in my view with “True Love Is a Golden Ring”, “After 17″ and “Tail Lights Blue”.
One candidate would be “The Incredible Machine”, mostly because by Sugarland’s standards it is perplexedly unfocused, largely hookless and lyrically shallow. I find the argument that it is inferior in quality because it isn’t “country” unfair, but all the same it was lauded in its promotional phase as transcending genre and being artistically adventuresome, which the album is neither. It is basically their 80′s pop-rock interpretation record. And while the duo themselves didn’t characterize it as a country album as you correctly argue, it nonetheless got promoted as a country release and their core format remains the country radio format, hence I find its placing sensible.
I’d also remove the Loretta Lynn tribute record and replace it with Jewel’s “Sweet and Wild”. Even though her debut country record left a little to be desired, it had its moments with individual cuts like “Stronger Woman”, and had a pretty solid production overall with John Rich (say what you will about Rich, but the man knows how to produce better than his recent songwriting attempts). Here, she sounds absent of substance, personality and comes across as calculating and torpid as ever. Only “No Good In Goodbye” stands out to me.
And even though I could see some arguing it may not necessarily deserve a Top Ten placing because it doesn’t try to be anything more than it really is anyway, Josh Thompson’s “Way Out Here” is also dreadfully pandering and dull, beyond just the single of the same name. I only recall finding the lead single “Beer on the Table” tolerable.
Otherwise, the rest appears in line with my take on the most rotten apples of the bunch reaped this year.
I see both sides of the “country” and “not country” debate with regards to The Incredible Machine, but I just honestly didn’t think it was bad enough to deserve to be in the bottom 10.
I’m not a huge Lady A fan but in addition to “Need You Now” I liked “Stars Tonight” and “Hello World” has really grown on me. I wouldn’t have included this album on a 10 worst list.
Noah, you described the IM material as “largely hookless”. Wiki describes “hook” as a term generally found in pop music and found in or often consisting of the chorus. Can a “hook” in country music be just a line or 2 that gets repeated (refrain?) or does the term refer to a full chorus or both? I found some songs I really like that have no chorus and one, “Table 32″ by Georgia Middleman and Sam & Annie Tate, that I think is also “hookless”.
I see some people saying that Taylor Swift should be on this list. While Taylor may be a subpar vocalist, I don’t think that means that every album she releases should be an automatic inclusion on the “Worst” list. “Speak Now” was a good album.
I like Lady A’s album pretty well, and I agree with the person who said that even Alan Jackson not at his best is better than most. Thanks for reminding me about his “Precious Memories”, I love that and haven’t listened to it in awhile. Reminds me of when I was a kid.
I was puzzled by the “unrelentingly upbeat themes” comment in regard to Danny Gokey’s album, to me that comment doesn’t seem to synch up with what the album is like. I am thinking in particular of “I Will Not Say Goodbye” which is a song about loss and grief that Danny sings with a lot of passion. I also really like “Crazy Not To” which I think shows off a more tender aspect of Danny’s voice.
Many of those detracting the latest from Taylor Swift, I’m quite sure, probably weren’t on her side to begin with—and more than likely entered this era holding up their cognitive dissidence towards Top 40-friendly singer/songwriters in general whose production, naturally, sounds as though it’s more Adult Top 40 friendly than Country Radio friendly in essence.
There may also be a generational divide partially behind that cognitive dissidence (although I think it has more to do with the production of her music more than anything). Amidst a format where the average listening demographic is around 45 years of age according to recent surveys, I think a portion of the 45-and-above demographic are acting defensively to what they sense to be a deluge of younger artists pushing more established veteran artists to the brinks of mainstream obscurity. They sense, with both sensible and unfair points, that the format is becoming increasingly saturated by flavors of the season, that the lines between country radio and Disney Radio are blurring more than ever before—and despite my belief that Taylor Swift is the real deal in that she’s a self-aware, passionate artist in control of her voice and craft—the fact she emerged spontaneously, is a younger artist and has a sound that doesn’t necessarily evoke traditional country but in terms of its songwriting is purely of the heart of the genre—has riled up her share of detractors.
Regarding whether she can “sing” or not, while I do agree as a “singer” she’s probably “subpar” as Ben put it, I nonetheless also believe you can be a capable singer but nonetheless possess a compelling voice, and vice versa. Taylor Swift strikes me as more of a voice type. Voice, to me, leans more toward the conscience facet of art, while singing concerns itself more with its form and orchestration. And where Swift’s best days as a singer potentially are likely ahead of her in my view, she already is quite a mature, conscientious artist true to her voice—which I believe is one main reason why millions have been captivated by her.
“Speak Now” is not just a great album, it’s an important album to me. While I wish there could have been a tad more intimacy behind its production, since her songs are, after all, as intimate, confessional and personal as can be—I nonetheless don’t necessarily believe Swift was intending to release a purely “country” record anyway, as the more arena-friendly sounds on the record suggests—and where I feel Sugarland slipped in attempting to tackle those influences with their latest due to the songwriting being poor and being made up primarily of declarative statements that don’t even feel anthemic—Taylor Swift succeeds because she doesn’t lose control of her songwriting chops in the process and allows that to claim the forefront of her work. And that simple, personal songwriting ethic is really what country music is all about at its essence—regardless of how glossy the production could be at times.
Josie, what Jim was arguing with regard to Gokey’s debut is just that. That the production choices feel tragically at odds with Gokey’s vocal styling and personal roots. His vocals were trained primarily through singing in gospel choirs, so it stands to reason his voice is best suited for the more soulful and textured aspects of country music that would best make justice of his range.
Instead, he’s offered little space to work with: incarcerated in the space of formula, making for a record that highlights more than anything Dokey’s emotional disconnect with the material that has been handed to him.
Noah, I agree with you that Danny’s voice has a very soulful aspect and that’s definitely one of the things that makes him stand out in country music.
I don’t agree that the album is fairly characterized as emotionally disconnected though. That’s not what I hear when I listen to it.
While I disagree with about half the list (and seriously how did Josh Thompson’s album not get on here), I can understand why they’re here. (Having said that Lynn, Bundy and Jackson are all in my top 10…) Always a good read though and perfect pick for #1….also Bomshel’s album came out October 20, 2009 so they shouldn’t be on this list…make room for Josh to get on here. :P
Two of these albums don’t belong on this list. #10 and #6. Both in fact should be on the Best of the Year.
I did not think Lady Antebellum’s album was that bad. While true that Need You Know is the only stand out song, the rest did not fare that badly. Personal tastes differ though. The rest of the list was pretty apt, and a agree with all of them.