2023 blessed country music fans with the biggest year for new albums in recent history. Stars like Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, Charles Wesley Godwin, Megan Moroney, HARDY, and many others released full-length studio albums this year. However, with every blessing, there is also a curse. Amid this jam-packed year we’ve all enjoyed, other quality albums were tragically overshadowed. One of these under-appreciated gems is I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell by the freshly inspired former pop-country purveyor Chase Rice.
People were very quick to dismiss Rice given his past. He penned “Cruise” for Florida Georgia Line and continued to ride that style of trite, checklist-heavy bro-country music for years. Despite a few scattered flashes of quality songwriting, Rice had never been able to get over that “pop-country” stigma. And for good reason: in 2016, Chase penned an open letter to his fans boldly declaring that the product he had been putting out up to that point wasn’t good enough and that he’s committed to making more substantive music in the future. That message was immediately followed by the empty-calorie single “Whisper.” The bottom line is when he came out in 2022 and said that his next record would be a twangier, more thoughtful effort, country fans who had written Chase off had seen this movie before; this new project wasn’t given much of a chance, to begin with.
That said this collection of 13 songs was nothing short of excellent. Rice showed a lot of maturity and has grown up through his career. Despite the aggressive title, Chase experiments with everything from soft vulnerability to fun, upbeat tunes that don’t make you feel dumb for enjoying them.
This is the first time we have heard something like this from Chase Rice. He’s telling stories and wears his heart on his sleeve in doing so. Produced in Chase’s own home, a lot of the music is structured around him and his guitar without a lot of extra bells and whistles, and he shows that he’s much more than an industry droid singing lifeless songs in pursuit of fleeting radio spins. On his previous efforts, we’ve heard far too much noise on the production side, but nary a song that really made you think or feel anything at all. Taking a step back and simplifying things was the best thing he could’ve done.
The fifth track, “Bench Seat,” is about as emotional as it gets. In what may well be one of the best songs this year, Rice showed genuine bravery in recording it. It takes a deep look into the battle against mental health and addiction, told from the perspective of the central character’s dog. Highlighting their bond, the connection between the two is evident; the dog and the man rely on each other for life, though in the end, the man takes his own, and the dog is left to take care of the wife and kid. The last verse is the sort of gut-punch lyricism that you might expect from a Jason Isbell record but feels downright revolutionary coming from Chase Rice.
The emotions run high but so does the energy throughout the album. Songs like “Way Down Yonder” and the slow-burning “I Walk Alone” can fire the listener up. The latter of these two tracks has a strong “calm before the storm” type of feeling before the last chorus takes charge. The build-up is all preparation before Chase shouts out that last chorus with a lot more intensity than most expected him to be capable of. “Way Down Yonder” is yet another track that seems outside of the box for Rice, though there some aspects of a typical country-lifestyle song that keep it in his comfort zone. It is a mainstream version of outlaw country which gives it a very interesting sound. Rarely do mainstream artists take that approach to their music because it strays so far away from their demographic. Rice was able to make it work well and give listeners a spark.
The one part of the album that doesn’t necessarily jive is “Bad Day to be a Cold Beer” interpolating “Drink in My Hand” by Eric Church. It’s not a bad song, but it’s hard to call it a good one either. Probably the worst track on a very strong album, seemingly homaging Chase Rice’s obnoxious bro-country years. It could have fit in on his previous records and may well have been the most country song on any of them, but on this record, where heart and cleverness are on full display, it just doesn’t feel like there’s a place for this track. Still, this ditty doesn’t bring it down whatsoever.
The album’s two title tracks each come with a heavy dose of sarcasm; “All Dogs Go to Hell” is a very simple song, feeling like a clever songwriting exercise from the writers’ room, but still has a very endearing feel. The chorus resolves with the line, “And I don’t miss you baby, and all dogs go to hell” as our protagonist tries to fool himself into thinking he’s over the girl.
“I Hate Cowboys” takes a similar approach; Rice sings about how much he hates cowboys because they always get the girl, they aren’t scared of anything, etc. As the song goes on it becomes more and more evident that he deep down loves cowboys and admires them. “I Hate Cowboys” is very emblematic of this era in Chase’s career in general; you can tell he’s wanted to be that renegade storyteller for some time now, and may have even envied artists who aren’t tethered by the demands of commercial radio. This record is his journey towards becoming just that; each song goes hand in hand and finishing things out with “I Hate Cowboys” feels like the fulfillment of a personal expectation for Chase.
Perhaps most important of all, Rice looked to honor his late father with the project. There is a strong sense of reflection from start to finish and his dad is a big reason for that. “Life Part of Livin’” muses a lot on life and the parts that make it not so easy. It reminisces on the good parts like college, but also the tough parts like losing a father. Songs like that show the impact that his father left on him. While not every song is directly related to his father it is clear his father’s impact on his life and how it shaped who he is today.
From start to finish, I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell is a journey. It’s full of life and emotion. Chase Rice fully re-established himself as a thoughtful, artistically provocative country artist in 2023, and deserves significant credit for finally taking that leap to become this introspective new character. Make no mistake about it: I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell is one of the top albums of 2023 and should be treated as such. For more than a decade, people wrote Chase Rice off as a boring dude-bro, and he proved them all wrong in one single release. It’s time we all give I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell the credit it has so richly earned.
9.1/10
Listen to I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell here.
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