The word 'my' in that song says a lot. There's not more of a possessive or obsessive word in the English vocabulary. He thought I was his soul mate, his other half, but it was a lot. | | | | Morgan Wallen in Nashville, Nov. 10, 2019. "Dangerous: The Double Album" is out today on Big Loud/Republic.
(Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) | | | | | | “The word 'my' in that song says a lot. There's not more of a possessive or obsessive word in the English vocabulary. He thought I was his soul mate, his other half, but it was a lot.”
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| | rantnrave:// The not-so-secret secret of reality shows like THE VOICE and AMERICAN IDOL is that they're not in the business of looking for, or creating, future pop stars. They're in the business of making good reality TV, which requires characters, conflicts and heart-tugging storylines more than it requires, say, the ability to really, truly inhabit and sell a pop, country or R&B song. "Idol" lucked out a few times, especially in its early years, and got a little of that latter magic. "The Voice," in which the conflict and competition elements are more central, hasn't been so lucky. Though it's been on the air since 2011, none of its hundreds of alumni landed a song in the BILLBOARD top 10 until last summer, when an afterthought from season six reached #6 with a song called "7 SUMMERS." The infamously mulleted singer of that country crossover hit (which "uses a pair of major-seventh chords to evoke the breezy sound of FLEETWOOD MAC," in the words of the New Yorker's KELEFA SANNEH) is MORGAN WALLEN, who won the hearts of judges SHAKIRA and USHER when he auditioned for the show 7 winters ago (he picked Usher as his coach) and was all but ignored by the show's country expert, BLAKE SHELTON. He lasted two rounds before being knocked out. He returned home to Tennessee and, in time, found a sympathetic country-rock producer, JOEY MOI, and got a radically retro haircut inspired by an old photo of his father. Songwriters BEN BURGESS and KEVIN KADISH brought him "WHISKEY GLASSES," which Wallen voiced into one of the best country songs of 2018-19, and he was, more or less, on his way. He had a famously rocky 2020, involving one arrest, one viral photo of bad pandemic behavior and one canceled SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE performance (SNL gave him a second chance in December, and he made the most of it)—which would make a great backstory for, say, "The Voice," should he ever want to give it another go. He won't need to, of course. In between all that, he used his pandemic downtime to record a 30-song double album, featuring a handful of good Burgess co-writes and 16 co-writes of his own (including "7 Summers," written with the all-star team of SHANE MCANALLY and JOSH OSBORNE). DANGEROUS: THE DOUBLE ALBUM is out today and it pays off its 100-minute sprawl with a raspy barroom magnetism worthy, finally, of a four-chair turn... It's FRIDAY and that means there's also new music from BARRY GIBB (country duets), JAZMINE SULLIVAN, AARON FRAZER, MIGUEL ZENÓN & LUIS PERDOMO, CASPER CLAUSEN, VIAGRA BOYS, FROZEN SOUL, SAMMY HAGAR & THE CIRCLE, AARON WATSON, the 8-BIT BIG BAND and the soundtrack to the GRISELDA RECORDS movie CONFLICTED, featuring BENNY THE BUTCHER, CONWAY THE MACHINE, WESTSIDE GUNN and others... DAVID BOWIE would have turned 74 today, and ADAM LAMBERT, PERRY FARRELL, DURAN DURAN and WILLIAM CORGAN are among the long list of performers who'll celebrate at a ticketed livestream concert produced by longtime Bowie pianist MIKE GARSON starting at 9 pm ET tonight. Tickets here and here. (Sunday will be the fifth anniversary of Bowie's death)... RIP JAMIE O'HARA. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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