Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Florida Georgia Line- Here's to the Good Times


Here we go again with another review that makes it terribly obvious that I have no right reviewing music. I apologize in advance.
 

Florida Georgia Line's new album, Here's to the Good Times dropped today. I wasn't initially going to even listen to it, and sure as hell had no plans to review it. 

I'll admit, I kinda went all fangirl for Tyler and BK after the first time I saw them as openers for Randy Rogers at Buster's in Lexington and after that, I bought their first single "Cruise." (Proof that being nice and flirting with me, I say with only a little shame, can lead to me buying your music and basically giving up every bit of my musical and personal integrity. Things are usually headed straight downhill when I meet a band after their show and bust out my standard, "Y'all were so good!" Throw in some giggles, a couple 'girls are so stupid and guys aren't much better' smiles, a comment on how cute my accent is, and boom. You might as well open up iTunes yourself and charge the album to my card. You win, I'm a lost cause. My love for long haired and tattooed boys in bands betrays my common sense every time.) 

My first FGL experience
I really liked them that night.
 A decision clearly influenced by no outside factors. 

 
With as much hype as the new album is getting already, I figured it would be played to death on the radio soon enough, so there was no need to rush and listen to the new stuff today. But then one of my favorite little country music fans tweeted me (from the FGL album release party, cause she's that cool!) that "Here's to the Good Times" was really good, so I decided to give it a chance.  (Ok, first she sent me a picture of Tyler, who we both are more than a little in love with. But then she told me the album was good.) While I was listening, I decided I might as well write about it. Not like I was really gonna do anything worthwhile today anyway.


So I started listening.  And things went from good to ok to "I have made a huge mistake" in a very sudden, very unexpected chain of events.

Let me just take a moment to step back and explain the situation. Before I buy any album, I stream it in Spotify. Here I am, sitting at the kitchen table, already a little irritated with myself because I'd decided to write a post about FGL instead of finishing the post about Mona, a band that I have no shame in admitting I love, that I started yesterday. 

So, I started listening to the album and writing this post, marking the songs I liked and wanted to mention as I wrote the intro to the review. I was mostly enjoying what I heard. The album started out with the first single "Cruise," a song I already liked. I hadn't heard "Round Here" but enjoyed it after my first listen, same way with  "Get Your Shine On" and "Here's to the Good Times." 

A bit of graphic assistance to help you follow this story.


But then, everything changed. "It'z Just What We Do" ended and I was in the middle of typing a rant about how adults purposely spelling words the wrong way isn't cute. Ever. And FGL do it twice on this album. I was ready for that to be my biggest complaint about the whole damn thing. But then I noticed I was singing along to the song that came on next. And I knew it wasn't a FGL song, because I'd only really heard "Cruise" enough to know all the words. It was a cover song, but who were they covering? I couldn't think of the original song. So, I did what I always do in a moment of confusion, and turned to Google and typed in the first words of the song.

 


O.M.F'in.G.
Hold on.

Time out.

What. The. Hell.

That's a mother f'ing Black Stone Cherry song.


 It would have been much easier to convey my reaction to what the Google showed me if there had been some sort of hidden camera filming me. Maybe you're lucky you didn't have to see it. There was yelling. There was anger. There was disgust. There was a maelstrom of emotions. Mostly, there was shame. I did know that song. That was a Black Stone Cherry song. And I knew every damn word and was home alone and loudly busting it out like I loved it.

If you know me at all, you know I have completely senseless issues with BSC. Issues that boil down to one thing: I'm a jealous little biatch. Usually, I can avoid dealing with these feelings for the most part by just ignoring that they exist. Imagine my surprise when I was just going about my business (listening to a country album for f's sake!) and boom. There they are, tricking me into liking their music AGAIN.

Black Stone Cherry-- Stay





    Florida Georgia Line-- Stay

FGL changes it up a little. And it's good. And that's all I can make myself say about that. 


Overall, Here's to the Good Times is a pretty solid album. If you like modern country, you probably won't be able to find too much wrong with it. It's full of that typical "we love drinking and being country" songs that go over so well these days. It's just like the way I felt about the Dustin Lynch album: Is it the kind of music that I love? No, not really. Is is life changing, earth shaking, big as the Beatles kinda stuff? No. But it's pretty good. Worth buying if you need some fun new music. 

(Also, Tyler, if you read this, I'm still more than a little in love with you. I can overlook the BSC stuff if you just wanna run off and get married or whatever. Bethany, I'll consider sharing!)  


My top picks from Here's to the Good Times :



Florida Georgia Line-- Get Your Shine On 



Florida Georgia Line-- Round Here

(terrible quality video, but the best I could find)

Florida Georgia Line-- Tell Me How You Like It






I'm going to go now and listen to only Metallica and Alice in Chains for the rest of the night so I can feel better about myself.....

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