Single Review: ‘Cold One’ – Eric Church
10 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Single Review: ‘Cold One’ – Eric Church
Songwriters: Eric Church, Luke Hutton, Jeff Hyde
I could get used to this. Amid what I started to fear would be an endless stream of meaning-free drinking songs, Eric Church‘s ‘Cold One,’ along with Dierks Bentley‘s ‘Drunk on a Plane,’ reminds us that there is another way.
Expertly wielding the triple entendre, Church alternatively lets ‘cold one’ refer to his beer, his ex-lover, and her treatment of him. He ends up with some stellar phrases that you will miss if you consume your music thoughtlessly: “I still like to drink a beer, but a long neck I won’t do / ‘Cause every time I see one sweatin’, man, I break out in one too.”
Producer Jay Joyce built an interesting track, relying on familiar steel and acoustic guitar before bringing in a bootstomp bass and drum to elevate the chorus. His use of drums in the first half of the second verse is innovative and exciting. The self-indulgent breakdown after the guitar solo is not. There is a fine line between “let’s add something different that will still work here,” and “let’s try something different…just so we can say we did something different.”
‘Cold One’ will stand in stark contrast to many other “beer-beach-babe” summer singles, and will hopefully encourage more of this type of truly creative songwriting.
Liv Carter
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
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