Leave the Night On
I've never been much of a country music girl, but lately, I find that the Daily mix I'm gravitating towards all the time is the COUNTRY-themed one! I'll admit it's not hardcore country just yet (let's be real, Taylor isn't country anymore but I did love her country-albums). So in honour of my not-so-secret country self, here are some of the ones I'm obsessing on.
“And it sure feels good to finally feel the way I do”
Starting with the song and artist that sent me into this entire Country-Pop spiral, I have to give it to Keith Urban for making me fall so hard for this song, I think I listen to it at least once every day. It's not even a lie. Somebody Like You needs all the covers and all the live versions because I constantly want new ways to listen to this song. How lucky is Nicole Kidman to be married to this guy -- please never break up. But also, please perform this song more in live venues so we can have glorious YouTube videos of it.
“You make me feel something but it sure as hell ain’t butterflies”
I'm so annoyed with myself that I didn't discover Kelsea Ballerini's album, Unapologetically until this year because it would have TOTALLY made it to my favourites of 2017. I have a couple of favourite songs but I Hate Love Songs one stood out quite a bit because I sure as hell don't hate love songs but I like the way she lumps all the cliche's together and still makes it so swoony. I do miss a good Country-Pop girl. Paging Taylor, come back.
“You made the brightest days from the darkest nights”
I'll be honest, I didn't know who half these artists were if not for Spotify or something else and for Florida-Georgia Line, I distinctly remember Becky mentioning them to me randomly and then seeing a tribute to them by the Backstreet Boys during one of my YouTube spirals. I actually really like seeing BSB cover H.O.L.Y.. I think I generally just like seeing the Backstreet Boys do covers. I thought it was a praise song at first until I realised what it stood for but still kind of holy-ish.
“When you poured out your heart I didn’t waste it; ‘Cause there’s nothing like your love to get me high”
I first discovered Tennessee Whiskey thanks to Justin Timberlake's mash-up with Chris Stapleton at the CMA's, but over-all, I love the original song and so i was a tad disappointed with their collaboration for Justin's new album -- in general, that was a pretty disappoint album. But I digress. I didn't know there was a cover and I love me some covers -- and by Parson James at that! Oh the joys of a beautiful mash-up.
“But after all this time, you’d think I’d be used to the pull of your gravity”
And we get cheesier as we go through the damn daily mix but Still Fallin' by Hunter Hayes was not something I would have clicked on through by myself but thanks to this damn mix, I've played it way more than I would have thought I'd do. And he's got other extra cheesy songs, too. Who am I and what spiral have I gone into?
“Shoulda learned from the movies that good guys don’t run away”
I won't lie, when I first saw the title of this song, I thought Kacey Musgraves was doing a country-cover of *NSync's Space Cowboy, but I am not this lucky. Still, her song Space (should have a comma in between), Cowboy is actually pretty catchy and tells of a guy who wants his space, and he happens to be a cowboy. Gotta love the straightforwardness there.
“I want the secrets you keep, the shine underneath of the diamond I think I just found”
I think I first heard of Brett Eldridge in a playlist of holiday songs thanks to his duet with Meghan Trainor and his voice doesn't hurt the ears either (and not too bad on the eyes). So when he popped up on the Daily Mix with Mean to Me, I knew I had to visit his profile and see his others songs. I actually really like this acoustic version of The Long Way. Thanks, YouTube for giving me alternatives to my favourites.
“We’ll be rolling down the windows, I bet you we’re catchin’ our second wind”
So the thing about Sam Hunt is... he's super hot. Like when I first saw his photo, he definitely did not strike me as the country music guy but then he's written songs for Kenny Chesney (I googled that fact) and the like so he must be pretty legit. I actually like a bunch of his songs including House Party and Body Like a Back Road but Leave the Night On is always fun and rap-y with the long lines. It's just distracting to see him look like a football frat guy (all good things) and then sing very country pop-hip-hop style songs. I am confused. I like it a lot.
“Put a drink into your glass that will make you let go”
It's funny because I was just telling my cousin Acid (during a post-tennis dinner) that I couldn't name a single The Voice winner (it was playing on TV). And after googling info about Danielle Bradbery, she apparently won Season 4! Sway is a very cutesy song and though I probably couldn't identify her in a line-up of blonde country stars, I thought it was a very adorable song.
“I want to be free yeah, to feel the way I feelI want to be free yeah, to feel the way I feel”
Finally, ending this list with the Queen of Country-Pop. Man! I Feel Like a Woman is just the best Shania Twain jam. It ties up there with That Don't Impress me Much but I think I like this more by an iota. And also because this song's video does her sort of tribute/callback to Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love. And because I could probably do this as a Halloween costume more than her tiger outfit in the other video. It also warms my heart that both songs have been covered by HAIM and I kind of wish they did the full version of this song
