The Musical Divide

The short version: “REDNECKER” by HARDY now has a somewhat close competitor for being the worst song of the year with Billy Currington’s “Details.”

• Writers: Mark Trussell, Nicolle Gaylon, Steven Lee Olsen
• Rating: 3/10

The long version: Not to repeat myself from my Eli Young Band review, but it truly is startling to see just how many artists have (seemingly) fallen off the face of the earth these past five years.

Granted, unlike that band, certain artists haven’t been as lucky. And when it comes to Billy Currington, it’s hard not to see the downfall as his own fault in a way. He’s always had that easy-going charm and charisma evident in, say, Jake Owen or Blake Shelton, and “It Don’t Hurt Like It Used To” was certainly a big hit a few years ago. But milking the Summer Forever album for three straight years when it offered very little else was a poor mistake, and that’s evidenced enough by Currington’s last single, “Bring It On Over,” almost completely bombing on arrival.

But hey, the winds of country music are changing. With the easy Jake Owen comparison, even he’s been able to bounce back and find a market for breezy, organically flavored music, which isn’t out of Currington’s wheelhouse. Instead, someone needs to tell Currington it’s not 2016 anymore and to ditch the faux R&B shtick he’s trying to pull on his new single, “Details.”

If you’ve found yourself disgruntled with mainstream country music over the past few years, “Details” has just about everything you’d hate – incredibly loud, lousily mixed percussion (complete with snap tracks!), fake drums that only sour whatever romantic vibe this is aiming for, and, later, a sour guitar tone to try and give this song a more “serious” atmosphere. In other words, if you were to experiment with GarageBand, chances are whatever you made would end up sounding better than this. For a song that’s trying to aim more soulful and breezier, it’s stifled by blocky textures with no warmth or groove to them whatsoever.

Sadly, Currington doesn’t offer much to the track, vocally, either. Again, he’s incredibly charismatic on some of his best songs, but you’d never be able to tell that on a track that features one of his choppiest flows to date. You could give this to Chris Lane, Dustin Lynch, Dylan Scott or whoever else, and nothing would change.

And, as you might have guessed by now, the lyrics certainly don’t offer anything commendable. “Details” is reminiscent of Eric Paslay’s “Song About A Girl,” and not in a good way. Basically, the narrator spends more time telling us things he’s not focused on (which, in turn, means he is focused on them) rather than the subject in question. Of course, those “details” Currington focuses on with his significant other are more about her sexual bravado and looks rather than, you know, her actual character. If you looked up any country playlist from 2013, this song would fit right in amongst the other dozen or so tracks which glorify women as sexual objects. In 2019, however, it’s pretty sad when even Thomas Rhett of all people can outdo this song with “Notice,” which is a forgettable album cut in its own right.

If you didn’t catch on by now, “Details” by Billy Currington is an awful track that’s horribly dated in terms of its lyrical sentiment and production tactics. In a nutshell, Currington is better than this garbage.

(Decent 3/10)