Florida Georgia Line

As I’ve touched on ever-so-slightly in other Narrative reviews before, Florida Georgia Line’s entire aesthetic depends upon their ability to somewhat ‘bridge the gap’ between the popular styles of Hip Hop & Alternative R&B with the less-favoured genre of Country, packing their tunes with Trap-inspired beats & Snoop Dogg-ified naming conventions whilst sporting all-white fur coats & Kanye shades as if they were some kind of mid-noughties Pimp characters. Well, in a move that absolutely defies convention, the daring duo cleverly pulled a fast one on all of us by hiding a handful of genuine R&B bangers within Can’t Say I Ain’t Country that not only uphold the integrity of their stolen genre but do so without playing directly into the stereotypes you might’ve formed just from the song titles alone – For instance, the song “Women (feat. Jason Derulo)” would rightfully have you preparing yourself for a bombastic Dance Pop adventure with some shameless self-promotion adlibs occurring within the first 5 seconds given that Jason Derulo is in-fact the featured vocalist on the track, but they go in a completely different direction that’s nowhere near your prejudiced opinions; Yes, they soothe your nerves with a beautifully somber ballad packed to the brim with soulful charm both in vocal intent & endearing instrumentation, admittedly a tad too processed for my likings but a pleasantly far-cry from the generic Pop bullshit we’ve come to expect from Florida Georgia Line at this point. It’s a surprisingly authentic R&B performance that’s more respectful of the past than nearly anything they’ve delivered before, capturing the wholesome swaying momentum of retro ‘I wanna get married in a barn’ slow-dance songs of the Country variety fused with the delicate vocal radiance of a nineties Slow Jam, making for a truly heartwarming experience you won’t soon forget; This all continues in ballads like “Talk You Out Of It” that lean so heavily into crooning R&B territory that you might need to watch your step, as you’ll be weak in the knees when you hear the honest-to-Betsy game-spitting going on within, utilizing very natural analog instrumentation that’s played in a decidedly robotic fashion as if sequenced from a drum pad, Alternative R&B-specific vocal patterns you only really hear kids in the last three to five years using & – of course – some references to Luther Vandross within the song’s lyrics that make it blatantly obvious these guys know exactly how to market the shit out of themselves, preying on the nostalgia of older listeners whilst borrowing anachronistic sound profiles to make their contemporary listeners think they’ve broken new melodic ground – I’d be remiss not to acknowledge how incredibly strange this whole scenario is though, as Country & R&B may share sonic ancestry but they certainly have failed to assimilate with one-another nearly every time an artist has tried, so in reality Florida Georgia Line are really just coasting by on the power of novelty rather than actually producing spectacularly-inventive music; They just want to reap the benefits of African-American culture without having to deal with any of the societal prejudices that come along with their adopted image. Still, the fact that they’ve managed to get this close to a proper blending of the disparate genres is a feat in & of itself I can’t help but admire in one way or another.

We can talk about how Florida Georgia Line steals from Black music culture ten ways ‘til Sunday, but the real draw-factor of Can’t Say I Ain’t Country is the sheer amount of classically-inspired Country jams they have on the album, making it clear they’ve been listening to the industry’s cries for ‘real Country’ to make its triumphant comeback across the market. They miraculously take a step back from the Patron for a moment to pick up their guitars & jam out some solid hick grooves any ranch-hand would gladly put on as they got ready to hit the saloon for the night, pumped up by the old-school charms of hoedown-centric tunes – Basically, they’ve gone back to the farm with songs like the titular “Can’t Say I Ain’t Country,” a killer track that gives you spunky Honky Tonk guitar tones with that plucky attack sound over soaring vocal melodies you just want to live out your vagabond dreams through, living out your days tossing barrels of hay around whilst the local singles ogle you from afar. My personal favourite is “Speed Of Love,” which turns up the steam a bit to give an overwhelmingly over-processed yet completely drenched in classic Rodeo Country stylings banger, driving forth with fast shuffling drums & ripping guitar riffs akin to Tia Carrere’s iconic “Ballroom Blitz” from Wayne’s World, all performed alongside pedal-steel lead lines, chromatic chord progressions with a Blues Rock twist & a spectacular road-hog sensibility that makes you wanna drive an eighteen-wheeler off into the sunset whilst high on that wacky-tobacky with a hint of reprocessed cocaine for good measure, a real ruffian of the highway back in the late-eighties – If that’s not quite your gig, you can always turn to the The Penguins “Earth Angel”-like high-school dance ballad “Told You,” what with its beautifully heartwarming, church-like melodies & very percussion-heavy instrumentation that relies on a soothing shuffle beat with off-kilter improvisation to make you feel like you’re in an intimate environment of undying love & adoration, head draped over your lover’s shoulder as the world fades away leaving only the two of you floating in ecstasy; Y’know, one of those cute little dream sequences from all your favourite 40’s-era Action Comedy flicks like Back To The Future, yeah? I do have to admit, though: For all the splendor they’ve shown by returning to a more anachronistic sound, Florida Georgia Line can’t quite escape their hyper-stylized, almost robotic sonic aesthetics, particularly when it comes to the vocal arrangements, as their harmonies are so unbearably synthetic & processed it’s unsettling; Like, I’m all down for a bit of compression & pitch adjustment to make your vocals cleaner & punchier than they are normally, but the harmonies herein are so blatantly manufactured that it makes you question whether these guys can actually sing on their own at all, each choral layer merely a duplicated track layer with a harmonic modulation effect applied to make it seem like a barber shop quartet were singing with one-another even though that couldn’t be further from the truth – It’s a little detail that most listeners would probably overlook whilst claiming Florida Georgia Line is actually performing to the highest degree of mastery, but for anyone with an ear for sound design & musicianship it’s actually rather distracting, just one in a long line of production techniques the group uses that can easily drown out the fantastic analogue instrumentation peppered amidst the album.

After all the generic bullshit Florida Georgia Line have put us through over the years, I’m astounded this album is packed with as much phenomenal songwriting as it is, ‘cause they certainly haven’t made any of that clear to audiences through marketing, literally hiding all of their genuinely skillful mixes in the shadows whilst promoting the most generic, soulless, lackluster singles they can to appease the mainstream radio audience. While we’re off judging them for generic numbers like the Bebe Rexha-centric “Meant To Be,” they’re busy producing thrilling Country Pop numbers like “Y’all Boys (feat. HARDY)” that convey a delightfully Country Rock-ish edge thanks to the inclusion of industry up & comer HARDY, delivering frenetic palm-muted guitar riffs with intricate percussive rhythms you just don’t get in modern Country tunes, setting them apart from the crowd whilst remaining just relatable & trendy enough to matter; They even take vaguely-interesting artistic risks by getting creative in the various interludes dispersed throughout the album, performing hilarious skits about a guy contacting the group’s phone line & leaving the most random voicemails you could imagine, each more tantalizing than the last in a way that makes you say ‘yo, these guys are actually charismatic as fuck’ – It’s not often that I admit when I’ve been wrong, as the act legitimately shaves years off the contract I made with Satan to send this world into disarray nearly 600 millennia ago, but y’all, I fear I have to apologize wholeheartedly to every member of the band in earnest. I’ve spent years absolutely shitting on Florida Georgia Line whenever I got the chance, seeing them as no superior a duo to Country music’s dirty old uncles Big & Rich or any of those other Caucasian southerner bands who’ve capitalized on Black culture to become megastars in their own right despite having no real talent to back up their claims to fame, but that opinion has been continually proven wrong just by me taking more than a surface level dive into their body of work, even more apparent in the totally baseless adversity I had towards Can’t Say I Ain’t Country before I actually had a chance to enjoy the music they’d produced within; They’re still gentrifying Caucasians who enjoy the accolades & attention of black culture without shame, but I can at least see through the act down to the musicians who’re waiting just beneath the surface, begging so earnestly to be seen for the human beings they are, just a couple of guys who love to party & play music for nothing more than promoting good vibes – So, yeah, I’m a god damned fan of Florida Georgia Line now & I’m absolutely appalled by the revelation, but these guys have really turned their career around with this album in ways that help erase so many of the missteps they’ve made in the last decade.