Highway Desperado
[United States] : Broken Bow Records, 2023.
Format: Streaming Music
Edition: [Explicit version].
Description: 1 online resource (1 audio file (46 min.)) : digital.
Never far from the top reaches of Billboard's Country Airplay charts, Jason Aldean nevertheless didn't garner much attention for his latter-day slow-burning country until "Try That in a Small Town" became a controversial sensation in the summer of 2023. Accompanied by a music video shot at a Tennessee courthouse that had been the location for lynchings and race riots, "Try That in a Small Town" became a cultural lightning rod, earning scorn from progressive country music fans and being embraced by conservative audiences that helped it become the singer's first-ever chart-topper on the pop charts. All its success was based on how the single and video deliberately pushed cultural buttons; strip those away, and "Try That in a Small Town" is just another in a long line of crawling, glowering, arena-country from Aldean. Highway Desperado, the single's parent album, offers more of the same. The midtempo "Tough Crowd" attempts to get listeners prepped for a party, the midtempo "Let Your Boys Be Country" flips the old Waylon & Willie suggestion on its head, the midtempo "Whiskey Drink" carries a modicum of regret, and the midtempo "I'm Over You" soothes a broken heart with a pop pulse. Elsewhere, Aldean co-writes for the first time in 14 years, bearing credits on the slow-moving "Hungover in a Hotel," the mildly insistent "Breakup Breakdown," and the dusty open-road anthem "Highway Desperado." That these three numbers find subtle but notable variations on Aldean's familiar formula could be telling or it could be deliberate: it's enough to give Highway Desperado a fuller sound than either Macon or Georgia, even if that's hardly enough to erase the bitter taste of "Try That in a Small Town." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Other Authors:
Aldean, Jason, artist.
Knox, Michael, producer.
Griffin, Shalacy, producer.
hoopla digital.
Aldean, Jason, artist.
Knox, Michael, producer.
Griffin, Shalacy, producer.
hoopla digital.
Contents:
Tough Crowd (3:20) -- Let Your Boys Be Country (3:16) -- Knew You'd Come Around (3:14) -- Hungover In A Hotel (3:24) -- Try That In A Small Town (3:00) -- Whiskey Drink (3:10) -- Whose Rearview (3:16) -- I'm Over You (3:00) -- Rather Watch You (3:33) -- Breakup Breakdown (3:00) -- Get Away From You (3:20) -- Changing Bars (3:25) -- From This Beer On (3:07) -- Highway Desperado (4:24).
UPC: 4050538951486
Parental advisory: Explicit content.
Instant title available through hoopla.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Instant title available through hoopla.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.