Like God Intended – Jordan Davis Written By Aishwarya Rajan
While much of the USA is buried in snow or under torrential downpours, Jordan Davis offers a ride to a place with sunshine and good times in his latest release. The track trades snow shovels for fishing rods and mugs for cold cans as he sings about “ripping on a crankbait,” and “six-pack sippin’.” It’s a song that successfully encompasses summer days of clear blue water, grilling, and Bluetooth speakers. With this track, he has joined the sun-soaked playlists of the early 2010s with the likes of Thomas Rhett, Florida Georgia Line, and Luke Bryan. However, Davis usually stands out due to his Louisiana drawl and clever twists in the writing of poignant hooks, whereas this single only showcases the former. Songs like “Singles You Up” and “A Little Lime” were more than just catchy; they felt new rather than reused. This new track underscores Davis’s knack for smooth, groovy melodies, but it sacrifices lyrical intention, which once gave him an “it factor” amongst the crowd. Throughout Jordan Davis’s career, he has achieved top-grossing singles on almost every album, in part due to his cleverness and the natural evolution of his country-pop sound, which sets him apart from his surroundings. Likewise, “Like God Intended” successfully establishes itself as a summer anthem and will fit easily into the broader pop-country canon, regardless of its pivot from the early-career storytelling listeners know and love.
7.0
Morning Comes – Ty Myers Written By Aishwarya Rajan
In his latest exposé, Ty Myers makes a compelling play for the throne of a modern-day blues king on the country veranda. “Morning Comes” settles comfortably among the sad-padded love staples that encode his discography, yet it feels less weighed down by grievance. While it carries the same eloquently phrased melancholy as his earlier work, the track reveals a softness and sensitivity that’s transcendent rather than encumbered. Threaded throughout spurious trumpets, with the sweet hums of electric guitar progressions that are strongly reminiscent of John Mayer. Most impressively, the production breathes life into the song, paralleling the lyricism. As longing settles, melodies stretch with the same ache. It’s a romance unfolding in the dark, where two people crave freedom while blurring the lines between love and lust. Enhancing this track further are the intriguingly intimate verses that swirl ear-to-ear due to Myers’s command with his pacing and various inflections. Each line lands with precision in strikingly painful resignations in the whimpering hook of “And they’ll all hate me” before confessing “love ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.” Each lyrical quip, musical swell, drift, or pause exposes Myers’s compositional prowess, as it’s fully calibrated to the story as a whole.
9.1
Everything’s Different – Ben Chapman Written By Adam Delahoussaye
With a sky-high register and low-key attitude, the heaviest lift for Ben Chapman is filling the mile-wide gap those two traits create with something worth taking up that much space. The fun part about watching the effort unfold is realizing that it never seems to take any sweat off his back to get there. Sure, there are moments on “Everything’s Different” that yelp, intended to be heard from the other side of a wraparound porch, but the real nuggets are in the moments where Chapman is beckoning us into the empty rocking chair next to him. He’s got the energy of an estranged uncle, drenched in tie-dye and steeped in southern sayings that push on the boundaries of language barriers. His diction reads as rambling at first glance before the sayings start to become real brain-scratchers once they simmer on the skull. He laments lost relationships, worries for small fish in big ponds, and those external struggles culminate in an internal identity crisis, all sizzling on the stove of Chapman’s spat-out (yet effortlessly clever) songwriting. “I still dream of these Tennessee stars, but all these tall buildings sure make it hard,” he hums, amidst warm keys and the pitter-patter of the drums that coolly saunter to the next line rather than strut with their chest puffed. You get the sense that even in the midst of the heat, Chapman’s superpower is keeping his internal temperature as cool as a glass of homemade iced tea. Despite the struggle it entails, “Everything’s Different” makes a good case for not swimming against the current; you never know where it may take you.
7.5
Born To Be Yours – Warren Zeiders Written By Adam Delahoussaye
If country music is in its “fireside chat” era, valuing stripped-down production that emboldens its more layered lyricism, then Warren Zeiders is the genre’s staunchest opposition to that new affinity for intimacy. The Pennsylvania native is continuously the most high-volume person in whatever room he’s in, backed up by arrangements that match his energy with overzealous and suffocatingly crowded pop motifs. The sheer magnitude of Zeiders’s performance, like smoke, helps cloud the fact that there’s hardly anything substantial behind the blinding shroud of embers he uses to give off the illusion of importance. You can hardly hear his tenor behind the galloping drums and fleshed-out guitar licks on “Born To Be Yours,” perhaps shielding the fact that his picturesque love story is about as empty-calorie and emotionally hollow as the last Hallmark card on the Valentine’s section of the rack. The singer has always carried himself with a bit of campy hair-band swagger, a mode that’s hard to translate into endearment when his added flourishes are devoid of any discernible personality. It feels like he’s caught between trying to pursue those more meaningful moments while holding onto the boom in his brass and stadium-shaking compositions that give the impression of a spectacle. Either that, or he doesn’t have the lyrical capacity here to match the more cinematic presentation he’s leaning into.
5.4
Sorry… I Meant Tonight – Megan Moroney Written By Joel Reuben Pauley
After the release of her new album, Megan Moroney is already back with a new bonus track. “Sorry… I Meant Tonight” reveals her deeply invested side, fully in love and unapologetic about it. Aside from the line “Don’t you think you’d look better with me?” which flashes a sharper, more confident edge than the rest of the song, there is a steady current of passionate, humble adoration throughout. Moroney leans into emotional dependence, hanging on every move of her love interest. It captures that familiar, almost obsessive longing many people have felt at some point, hoping the intensity is mutual. That universality is what gives the track its weight. Even listeners who are not typically drawn to her bubbly, ultra-feminine brand might find more depth here than expected. The production only strengthens the effect; it’s bright, playful, and slightly adventurous, mirroring the sense of freedom woven into the lyrics. The arrangement builds in satisfying waves, and a rapid bass run at the end of the bridge adds a punch of adrenaline that keeps the momentum high, even when dynamics begin to die down. Speaking to the guys reluctant to listen: Don’t look at listening to this track like playing with a Barbie doll. You may not be the clear target audience, but that does not lessen the value of what is here. When Megan Moroney leans into this kind of honesty, it deserves the same respect we hand out to any artist in the genre who opens up and lets the walls come down.
8.0
Drunk Cigs – Mackenzie Carpenter Written By Joel Reuben Pauley
In an intentionally humorous expression of denial, Mackenzie Carpenter’s latest single shows a playful, clever side of her artistry that feels remarkably natural. If you’re not familiar with Carpenter’s music, it’s likely you’ve heard her voice, never noticing her name on her featured tracks. Between collaborations with Hudson Westbrook, Megan Moroney, and Midland, she has built a strong résumé alongside a growing catalog of solo standouts too. Still, it would not quite be accurate to say she has had a defining breakout moment. In “Drunk Cigs,” though, you get the sense that that moment could be approaching. Lyrically, she makes light of avoiding the truth, leaning into the commonly accepted phrase “drunk cigs don’t count” and spiraling through a string of convenient half-beliefs she needs to hold onto just long enough to soften the sting of a breakup. When she sings, “I ain’t blowing smoke, saying my heart ain’t broke,” the concept feels impressively fleshed out. The wordplay is layered without feeling forced, and the delivery is so believable that it is hard to find any real complaint. Does the track appeal to radio ears? Yes, largely because it leans into a polished pop country sound. However, it does so tastefully; there are no distracting, overblown 808s cluttering the mix. Instead, the production is tight and balanced, built around strong chord progressions that create tension and subtle originality. It sounds contemporary without feeling too trend-chasing. Even with its accessibility, “Drunk Cigs” puts sharp writing and convincing storytelling first, and if that kind of craftsmanship finds its way to country radio, that is certainly a good thing.
8.5
Boat Named After You – ERNEST Written By Max Buondonno
Ernest continues his apparent pursuit of becoming a yacht rock act with his newest single, “Boat Named After You.” It was clear that his upcoming album, Deep Blue, would channel the vibes of Looking Glass and Jimmy Buffett, as seen in his previous track “Lorelei,” and this new song draws on the same inspiration. Dreaming about a girl so much you want to name your boat after her is certainly one way to communicate devotion, and Ernest does it effortlessly well here. The vibe is breezy and warm, encapsulating the laid-back attitude he’s shooting for on this record. Granted, its production feels a bit too familiar to help it avoid sounding like yacht rock karaoke, but it’s almost hard to be mad at that since you’ll probably catch yourself swaying along to it. Ernest seems to float nicely on the waves of beach country music; while it won’t blow you away or necessarily set him on a new artistic path, it’s at least enough to make you crave warm days on the water, which seems to be his ultimate goal anyway.
7.8
TV Tray – Trey Pendley Written By Will Chapman
There’s a certain kind of country song that never really falls out of style; it patiently waits to be dusted off time and time again. The “I wonder how the old folks are at home” trope is one of country music’s most enduring emotional engines, and when it’s handled with care, it fires every time. On “TV Tray,” Trey Pendley pulls that tradition off the shelf to explore nostalgia through a personal lens. The production of “TV Tray” leans organic with pedal steel sighs, piano accents, and mandolin textures. It’s relaxed, rootsy, natural, and overall pleasant. However, the images are what truly make the song stick. His dad is on the porch “burning one with coffee.” His mom was watching Wheel of Fortune or The Andy Griffith Show, eating dinner off a TV tray. The boys back home on the water with “cheap beer and a bobber,” probably not catching a thing. These simple domestic details color the narrative of a young man far from home as he reminisces. The “star” imagery inevitably recalls Jamey Johnson, particularly the era surrounding That Lonesome Song and the existential longing of “Stars in Alabama.” Pendley toys with the same notion that the stars in the city are the same ones back home, casting aspiration as something undercut by homesickness. Maybe he’ll be one of them someday, admitting he doesn’t feel like one tonight. That emotional contradiction is what elevates “TV Tray.” As it is a culmination of the emotions that accompany the uneasy realization that success doesn’t replace belonging, that fame doesn’t shrink the distance between you and your mother’s kitchen. In chasing the lights of somewhere bigger, Pendley realizes the glow he misses most was always coming from the living room. “TV Tray” lingers because it understands a simple truth: you can follow the stars all you want, but home is what makes them mean something.
9.4
