Single Review: ‘Goodbye Town’ – Lady Antebellum
12 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Single Review: ‘Goodbye Town’ – Lady Antebellum
Songwriters: Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott, Josh Kear
Just a day before trio Lady Antebellum‘s new album, Golden, hits stores tomorrow, they release new single, ‘Goodbye Town.’
They return to sounding like a soft-rock band on this post-breakup song. Handling the lead vocal, Charles looks around and points out the personal landmarks in the town which remind him of his former lover. As he recounts all the happy memories he sighs ‘no, there ain’t nowhere I can look that doesn’t hurt.’
When picking a ubiquitous theme such as this, it’s especially important to find a new angle or say it in a creative way. Neither of these things happened here and it leaves the story sounding quite bland. This quartet of songwriters is capable of creating a better chorus than this:
‘This ain’t nothin’, nothin’ but a goodbye town
These streets are only bringing me down
Gotta find a way to finally get out
Out of this goodbye town’
The arrangement does a good job of adding some melancholy but overall it only helps to make this sound, complete with woh-ohs in the chorus, like a 90’s emo-rock song. After energizing their fanbase with the funky ‘Downtown,’ this is a strange choice for a summer single. There is a fine line between heartfelt melancholy and melodrama, ‘Goodbye Town’ falls on the wrong side of it.
Listen here: ‘Goodbye Town’
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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