Carly Pearce unfortunately has a tougher battle to fight in the mainstream country scene than her male colleagues. With that said, while I’m not surprised to hear something more radio friendly from her after “Hide The Wine” struggled for a top 15 finish, I’m still disappointed.
“Closer To You” starts off worse than it actually ends up sounding. The infamous snap track makes an appearance (and isn’t welcome), but it quickly fades into the background while the mix of slight piano, acoustic and electric guitars takes it place. The mix has a slight atmospheric touch to it, but it doesn’t push hard enough, leaving the song sounding slick and watered down.
Of course, the minor chord touches are nice, and the dobro solo is especially nice given Pearce’s background. They’re just dressing up an uninteresting song though. Short of mentioning a spot nobody knows, the song adopts a familiar theme of two lovers who want to escape their current scene to engage in lovemaking. It’s overdone and uninteresting from practically anyone at this point.
Pearce is an artist with a lot of potential in the mainstream, and Every Little Thing showed that nicely. “Closer To You” is a step back though, existing solely for the sake of scoring a hit before we all move on to something more interesting.
(05/10)
The Musical Divide 