The first single from Jason Aldean’s follow-up to the platinum-selling album Wide Open is bigger, louder and dumber than anything the Broken Bow recording artist has put forth to date. That’s something of an accomplishment, since Aldean is an artist who rose to country music prominence on the success of the quintessentially big, loud and dumb hit “She’s Country.”
“My Kinda Party,” written by Georgia singer/songwriter Brantley Gilbert, is (not surprisingly) a song about a redneck party in some backwoods little town. Aldean tackles Gilbert’s obtuse, throwaway lyrics with an abrasive, aggressive vocal that pushes every bit as hard as the full-fledged rock guitar licks that dominate the track.
Aldean sings about “Chilln’ with some Skynyrd and some old Hank,” but this record pays not a hint of tribute to either. “My Kinda Party” may be full-throttle redneck rock, but it’s a million miles away from the kind of blues-informed southern rock that made Lynyrd Skynyrd an iconic band. These riffs are slick and bland, these lyrics are pandering, and this concept is as tired as an old dog.
And, just like his 2006 hit “Johnny Cash,” Aldean’s “My Kinda Party” is a sloganeering effort that assumes its listeners demand only simple social affirmations and symbolic imagery. These name-checks are empty, but that’s not really an issue since words like “Hank” and “Skynyrd” are coded language utilized to identify one as genuinely southern.
It’s doubtful, after all, that the majority of Aldean’s fanbase is familiar with more than two or three songs by either Lynyrd Skynyrd or any of the three Hanks (maybe he was referring to Hank Snow?), but the mere mention of either places a work within a certain social framework. Here, that framework is young adults from small southern towns who drink cheap beer and hang out in the woods.
And, within that framework, it will not doubt be anthemic. Not because it’s good, or because it’s fun, but simply because it makes its statement so firmly that its target audience will rally behind it and sing along. In that sense, it serves as a strong tool for cultural self-elaboration.
That may well render it another big hit, but that doesn’t make it worthwhile for anyone who isn’t 24-years-old and obsessed with beer pong and muddin’.
Couldn’t agree with you more here. The only real difference I discern between this and “She’s Country” is that, while the latter had hints of banjo in its introduction as well as slivers of fiddle despite being unmistakably electric guitar dominant, and having a sound more reminiscent of late 80′s AC/DC, “My Kinda Party” is utterly absent of Country instruments and sounds like a lead single from 3 Doors Down (I hear a cross between “When I’m Gone” and “Let Me Go”, and despite the fact their frontman 3 Doors Down has not written any party-centric lyrics to date, the way this song is produced can easily make me imagine Brad Arnold singing this instead of Aldean, hilariously enough). This is just atrociously mediocre all-around, as all of Aldean’s lead singles have been.
Which is a shame, because it is in my opinion that Aldean tends to be an above-average performer when it comes to cutting album tracks. Aldean does have potential, and it has come across in cuts such as “Not Every Man Lives”, “I Believe In Ghosts”, “I Break Everything I Touch” and “On My Highway” to name a handful, where his vocals are understated and his melodies come across as raw but focused.
I’m actually optimistic this trend will continue into the new album era, as the track listing was published today and he appears to have a quality crop of songwriters once again (no Aldean co-pens, however). But it’s infuriating, to say the least, that Aldean feels he has to rely on the loud-and-proud amped-up chicken-fried metal maelstrom card to retain his commercial relevance every time, when he has already proven he can resonate with more minimalist material (most notably “The Truth”).
Lord, what a terrible song. You describe Jason’s music perfectly: Big, loud, and dumb. I am praying that radio won’t play this, but I know darn well that they will.
Sadly, they will. If Aldean’s lead single approach is not broke commercially, they aren’t going to fix it.
By the way, what is up with the lyric referencing “old Hank” in contrast to the endless parade of other country stereotype anthems referencing “Hank” alone? What, does Aldean have something against new Hank now? He should probably run for the hills! :P
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This song was written by Brantley Gilbert from GA. I saw him in Myrtle Beach NC a few years ago and he rocks. He performs the song so much better than Jason Aldean. He sings about a Ford truck tailgate and Jason says “jacked up tailgate”. Don’t get me wrong, I like JA but lately his songs all sound the same. If you love country music check Brantley Gilbert out. You won’t be disappointed!
Wow, are all of you so called “critics” elitist a-holes or what? If you don’t like Jason Aldean and somehow resent southern, small town beer-pong players who ‘hang out in the woods,’ then what are you doing posting reviews on americantwang.com???
And what does the fact that anyone listening to this song might not know every single word to every single Lynrd Skynrd song have anything to do with Jason Aldean as a performer?
I’ll give you that this is not the most lyrically thrilling song, but obviously Jason’s doing something right–and his live show is AMAZING. Have you ever seen him live? I doubt so, most likely the beer drinking and feet stomping would offend your delicate senses.
And please let me know, what was the last awesome song that YOU wrote??
And his music is at least 100 times better and more country than the other pseudo-pop crap that gets played on the radio all day long.
Maybe you should review on other websites…..
Wow, are all of you so called “critics” elitist a-holes or what?
Yup.
And again—just as I anticipated—the lead single is thankfully the nadir of the record.
I don’t understand why Aldean compulsively feels the need to trot out brain hemorrhaging material like this with every lead release. This title track is hardly representative of this album of the same name, which is actually quite decent I have to say, especially on tracks like “If She Could See Me Now”, “Church Pew or Barstool”, “Texas Was You” and “See You When I See You”.
It strikes me as more cynically-minded marketing more than anything. I could understand someone running with that if he/she had no artistry whatsoever, but Aldean is an able performer who can really resonate vocally when he wants to, and after already proving he can deliver hits off of material that veers from that such as with “The Truth” and “Amarillo Sky”, I see absolutely no need for Aldean to subject himself to this farcical facade.
This is all just your opinions. I think Brantley and Jason are both amazing singers. Brantley is better but this is the music us country hicks like. Its just what we live to. There is absolutley nothing wrogn with it.
I just wanted to say that I’m a music junkie and I just bought Jason Aldean’s latest album, “My Kinda Party” (that was released on November 2, 2010) a few days ago at Target. I’m so glad that I bought the album because I have been waiting for it to be released for a very long time. The album has sold about 1,204,386 copies over here in the United States of America and it also went Platinum. I think that it is one of the best Country albums of 2010 and he is the reason why I started listening to Country music in the first place. I aso have all 3 of his previous albums and I listen to them all the time because I find his music so addicting, I just can’t stop listening to it. He made a good choice on choosing Kelly Clarkson to sing a duet along with him on the song, “Don’t You Wanna Stay” because in my personal opinion, I think that she has an amazing singing voice. Kelly is one of my most favorite female Pop music artists and songwriters in the music industry, and I’m also one of her most biggest fans. I already know that Brantley Gilbert sang and wrote the song, “My Kinda Party” and deserves a lot of credit for doing that, but he gave that song to Jason so that he could record it on his album. Brantley is getting paid for writing that song and if he didn’t want Jason to record that song on his album, then he wouldn’t have given it to him in the first place. I like Jason’s version of that song a lot better than Brantley’s version and I hope that everybody here on this website doesn’t get offended when I said that because I’m entitled to my own opinion, and so is everybody else. I’m going to keep on supporting Jason and his music no matter what anybody out there says or thinks because he is one of my most favorite male Country music artists in the music industry and I’m also one of his most biggest fans. He doesn’t have to write his own music to become a talented Country music artist in the music industry because the only thing that really matters to him is that he has a lot of fans out there who really enjoys listening to his music as much as I do. End of story.