Bought a Boat – Brian Kelley Written By Max Buondonno
Brian Kelley’s post-FGL niche will always be his “Beach Cowboy” persona, even as he’s tried his hand at more traditional-leaning song topics in the past. It’s in the yacht rock-adjacent melodies and soundscapes where Kelley excels, which helps make “Bought a Boat” feel as effortless as buying a boat to get over a previous relationship seems to be. That’s to say that it’s probably a lot of work, but Kelley’s easy lyrical flow throughout the song convinces you otherwise. It’s yet another kicked-back, wavy single that begs to be blasted anywhere remotely tropical, filled with the same luscious instrumentals that made the first Sunshine State of Mind album the perfect beach playlist. As the song progresses, you’d swear that it was from that album, which ultimately doesn’t help it live up to any expectations you may have for Kelley and his writing ability. Instead, the song reminds you that Kelley still lives on the water and his mindset remains hyper-focused on the Florida shores, a topic that grows tiresome the more you dive into his catalog. But on its own, “Bought a Boat” is a fun track that delivers on conveying a ‘sunshine state of mind,’ even though Kelley’s certainly done that (and with better songs) in the past.
7.3
SIMPLE THINGS – Ne-Yo Written By Max Buondonno
The greatest feat a pop or hip-hop artist can aspire to nowadays is making their mark in country music. Whether it’s a desperate plea at a cash-grab or a genuine interest in paying homage to the genre, it’s all the rage to see artists try their hand at smoke-filled tavern sounds and acoustic guitar-laced ballads. Yet if you were to ask Ne-Yo what his take on a country song would be, it would be thanking his lady for making him dinner, but he’ll even applaud the sandwiches she makes. “Simple Things,” Ne-Yo’s latest single that happens to be categorized as country, combs over the simple things in life with a gentle acoustic production. That is, until it switches to the chorus, where trap beats come out of absolutely nowhere and try to intertwine Ne-Yo’s R&B roots into one of the most poorly-written songs of 2025. It’s a random smorgasbord of calling out tiny pleasures in life that don’t seem to compare to his partner, all while failing to deliver on the core mission: sounding like a country song. If anything, this could be a lame crossover between a Noah Kahan copycat and Ne-Yo if it were labeled as pop. Instead, it’s a delusional interpretation of country music that begs to be put out to pasture. But Ne-Yo is wearing a cowboy hat in the cover art, so we should all recognize it as another great genre-bending statement from one of the most popular artists of the millennium, no questions asked.
0.5
Keeps Me Sane – Tyler Nance, The Castellows Written By Aishwarya Rajan
Very few artists can transform an upbeat track into an exposé of a young man’s inner turmoil. Fewer still can thread “Nickajacks and psilocybin” through that picture with poetic ease. Yet in “Keeps Me Sane,” Tyler Nance proves himself something of a sorcerer of the written word. He bends metaphor into a mechanism for coping, capturing the many contours of mental illness through references to nature. It pulls the listeners into a whirlpool of imagery, rumination, and the uneasiness of facing truth and pain. The original track already showcased Nance’s gift for turning the melodic bones of Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” into a folk country classic, layered with pounding drums and sharp fiddles. But this new rendition, featuring The Castellows, draws the listener even deeper into his labyrinth of longing and self-unraveling. Entrenched in the pure and crystalline sound of The Castellows is the same quiet ache that Nance captures. Yet their harmony softens the pain in his trembling admissions of sadness while amplifying its emotional impact. Together, they create a sound that maneuvers deeper than mere catchiness. For three minutes and fourteen seconds, the audience is forced to sit with the same anxieties as Nance. It is as though they are also in the same cycle of ruminative pain and fleeting relief, which for a moment feels like salvation.
9.2
Can’t Take it With You – Ole 60 Written By Aishwarya Rajan
As the reigning champs of tear-stained singles, this Kentucky group has a reputation for releasing work calibrated for maximum emotional damage. The collective’s earlier ventures hinted at their elemental rock instincts with ardent, grunge-filled vocals and a delectable snare in masterpieces like “Brother Joe” and “Smoke and Light.” Following this style with their latest release, “Can’t Take It With You,” Ole 60 steps into a realm that blurs the line between country and rock. Once sharing a similar soundscape of propulsive backbeats and prominent guitar riffs, to artists like Treaty Oak Revival, the group seems to have wandered into a world where grunge and grit survive through the intentional pitchiness of screams and a driving guitar lead. The addictive sequence in the riff’s progression alone feels powerful enough to overthrow Guns N’ Roses. Far from the acoustic love ballads once fed to their listeners, this track delivers a masterclass in the alchemy of country-esque rock. It’s an experiment that infuses sultry, volatile undertones, revealing a harsh truth about chasing a dream. And country or not, it reveals their capability of morphing across genres, where each single and EP reshapes their identity and their listeners’ interest.
8.6
Pullin’ From A Bottle – Greylan James Written By Adam Delahoussaye
“Water At A Wedding” pretty much blew the lid clean off the well-kept secret that was Greylan James. The skill that most of Nashville was already privy to, most of them even employing, was finally out in the open: That James is as nifty and shifty a penman as they come, taking gimmicks and eye-rolling lines of almost-hits only to sharpen those phrases into full-fledged weapons. On his newest single, one-two punch is immediately apparent in the ebbs and flows of the verses of his single-handedly written “Pullin’ From A Bottle,” even if the song’s outer dressing feels a little too big for its silhouette. It’s pretty evident from bar to bar that the songwriter is close to, or just over, his 10,000-hour mark in songwriting. You feel the experience echoed in lines about “pushing me away so I’m pulling for a bottle” or any other number of loosely linked stanzas that are all over this teary-eyed track. That dichotomous kind of storytelling is what’s defined this catalog thus far, his hick-witted charm even being able to strong-arm what would otherwise be considered a pretty bland coat of production paint. Even underneath that Sam Hunt sterility in the mix, there’s still something to be discovered in each of these one-liners; verbal somersaults still manage to wriggle their way into your ears despite an arrangement muddier than the bourbon being downed here, in the wake of a heartbreak.
6.8
Big Deal – Randall King Written By Adam Delahoussaye
There’s some well-meaning earnestness in the bona fide country star proclaiming he’s more concerned with grocery aisle gossip than gold trophies, especially a few days after the most notable of the genre spent the night dressed up and patting each other on the back. On “Big Deal,” Randall King is taking his suave swagger back within his home county lines, the close quarters of which seem to play up his inflated ego to zany degrees. Charmingly, he’s a little more flippant about his small-town social status than the too-cool cowboy baseline he’s normally found operating around. There’s an air of unseriousness in every facet of the track, from perky, cartoonish runs around lines like “hell, I still ain’t drunk!” to jangly chorus arrangements where you can almost picture King kicking his legs in the air like Tom before using Jerry to roll his own cigarette. The delivery and the micro world-building it inhabits are hyper-animated, insisting that the social hierarchy here is a little tongue in cheek, even if it’s rigid. While there might be hints of sarcasm under his southern charm, King can definitely still flaunt his finesse even if half the patrons in the bar say they used to change his diapers. If he has nothing else, he’ll always have a little clout with the kids on Main Street.
7.0
Cold – BigXThaPlug & Post Malone Written By Jack Humphrey
Asking why a song needed to be made usually feels like a lazy, condescending way to criticize music. However, in the case of “Cold,” we truly have a song that fails to justify its own existence with the slightest modicum of wit or creativity. Here, we find two talented individuals sleepwalking through their craft. Neither Post Malone nor BigXThaPlug sound very interested in making “Cold,” and though it might be billed as some autobiographical delve into these troubled artists’ inner monologues, listeners are offered an underdeveloped simile and some surface-level musings about how toxic and unlovable Posty and X see themselves. The genesis of “Cold” could very well have been asking a chatbot to write a song that these two artists might sing together. Moreover, beyond this song being a lifeless slog in a vacuum, it pales in comparison to most of F-1 Trillion, where Post at least had enough dynamic hooks and slick instrumental moments to help you see post its weaker lyrical moments. For BigXThaPlug’s part, it’s starting to feel like he’s not holding up his end of the bargain with country music; though he’s been met with nearly universal institutional acceptance, the flimsy, adult-contemporary beats he’s turned in have been well below the standard of bouncy Texas hip-hop he’s become known for. Overall, “Cold” comes as a disappointingly half-baked effort from two interloping artists whose enthusiasm for country music may be on the wane sooner than expected.
4.0
Live From The South – ERNEST Written By Will Chapman
If there was ever an episode of Phineas and Ferb set somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon instead of the Tri-State Area, this is the exact song they’d throw on the soundtrack. “Live From The South” beams bright, happy energy that leans “good timey” without tipping into cliché bro-country territory. The open acoustic guitar immediately recalls the same breezy freedom of “Wide Open Spaces.” Although the production has fiddle and steel sprinkled throughout, it doesn’t chase a super-traditional, hardcore country sound. It instead leans toward Southern-fried easy listening, dodging the cheap, hip-hop-lite formula that so many pop-country tracks default to. Instead, everything feels comfortable; intentionally uncomplicated but still very professional. Brent Mason sneaking the “Dixie” motif into the outro solo is a subtle nugget that probably flies past most listeners, but it’s such a fun detail if you catch it. The whole track sits in that lane: pleasant, wholesome, and fun. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel; it’s just another ‘Saturday-night-in-the-South’ song, except it’s done with enough taste and color to make you smile.
8.1
Where My Heart Is (From The Vault) – Randy Travis Written By Will Chapman
Obviously, AI is looming ominously over the entire music industry right now. Randy Travis has already released a couple of AI-assisted songs, and the consensus has basically been, “Well… It’s Randy, he gets a pass.” No one wants to be the person who says it’s a slippery slope when the man survived a catastrophic stroke that stole his voice. This time around, instead of going back to the AI well, Travis and his team chose to pull a real vault recording. With an AI track recently hitting No. 1 on iTunes, that choice suddenly feels very intentional. His team hasn’t said exactly when “Where My Heart Is” was recorded, but considering Randy put out Christmas albums in 1989 and 2007, it’s almost certainly from one of those eras. Either way, hearing his pre-stroke voice in this context again feels like shaking up an old snow globe. His 1989 Old Time Christmas album is a staple for so many people, and this song taps directly into that same warm, glowing nostalgia. The track itself is steeped in that classic Randy Travis essence of gentle, homespun lyricism, easy melody, and, most importantly, that baritone, which remains completely unmatched. It serves as this subtle reminder that no matter how many artists come and go, and no matter how advanced artificial intelligence gets, nobody holds a candle to Randy’s voice, and nobody ever will. “Where My Heart Is” is simple and sentimental in the way only Randy Travis can make something feel timeless. It’s all fireplaces, falling snow, homecomings, and the small rituals that make Christmas feel like Christmas. Because this recording predates his stroke, there’s an added emotional weight — not sorrow, just gratitude. It’s like hearing an old friend walk through the door. For long-time fans, it’s a gift. For new listeners, it’s proof that Randy’s legacy doesn’t need help from an algorithm to feel alive.
8.8
