It’s the perfect mix to make a bad song even worse, and whoever put this thing together needs to have their access to the recording studio revoked until further notice. The sounds captures everything I can’t stand about this trend: The pointless alcoholism, the selfish, devil-may-care attitude, and the sleazy feel of the whole situation. The horns definitely make the arrangement stand out and I’d normally be happy for such a decision, but here they only add an extra layer of slime to a mix that already feels too dark and ominous thanks to an overreliance on minor chords and the prominence of the percussion. An electric guitar provides some simple rhythm work and a few stabs, but it doesn’t really contribute anything meaningful to the mix. There are two primary instrument groups here: The percussion mix (which incorporates everything from hand claps to hand-played drums to a standard drum set) and the horn section (a single horn provides a solo for the intro, but several horns march in lockstep for the majority of the song). I mentioned that the best Cobronavirus songs use their sound to establish a suitable atmosphere, but the production here shows that this can work against a song as well. This song is a gross, nihilistic piece of garbage even by Cobronavirus standards, and rings especially hollow in light of the events of the past week. This brings us to their latest single release “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” and frankly, it’s been a while since listening to a song has made me this angry. The quartet is all but finished in country music, but that isn’t stopping them from blatantly trend-hopping in hopes of a miracle career resuscitation. I wrote an epitaph for Little Big Town’s career last year, and nothing’s changed since then: “Over Drinking” only made it to #49 on Billboard’s airplay chart, and “The Daughters” didn’t reach the airplay chart at all. Perhaps these distinctions are understated but they're nevertheless felt and help give Nightfall a delicate richness it's music for meditative mornings or for afternoons in need of a dose of consolation and comfort.A better title for this song would have been “Disgusting, Disheartening, Lazy.” The hushed atmosphere isn't monotonous: not only is there room for the aforementioned goofy "Wine, Beer, Whiskey," "Forever and a Night" builds to a gospel crescendo, "Bluebird" is breezy and gentle, and "Sugar Coat" offers a dose of measured majestic melodrama. Such concentrated attention to discrete moments can result in a touch of thematic incoherence - the rowdy Mexicali-flavored drinking anthem "Wine, Beer, Whiskey" follows the lament "Over Drinking" - but the album overall has a keenly ruminative vibe that's not far removed from "The Daughters," Nightfall's lead single that happened to snag a Grammy nomination prior to the record's January 2020 release. The labor is evident, particularly in the careful construction of the compositions and the subtle shading on individual tracks. Making a break from Jay Joyce, the producer who has largely helmed their records since 2012's platinum Tornado, the four made Nightfall on their own, whittling its 13 tracks down from over 30 completed songs. The hooks, harmonies, and aural sumptuousness of late-period Mac have long been a touchstone for Little Big Town, yet this sound is merely a connective thread on an album that finds the quartet settling into a subdued but not necessarily settled middle age. Nightfall, the ninth album from Little Big Town, takes its title from a shimmering piece of soft-focus pop that effortlessly evokes Fleetwood Mac at the twilight of the 1980s.
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