It's blood from a stone and stoned on Percocet.
he'll find something worth sayin',
in a new way no one's ever heard it said."
On August 25, 2023 Tim McGraw released "Standing Room Only", the 17th studio album of his long career. The extraordinary title song climbed all the way to number 2 on the Radio (Billboard Country Airplay) Charts, becoming his 69th Country top-10 hit. Unfortunately, the rest of the album can't hold a candle to the title song.
Although 'Remember Me Well' also knows how to impress. However, thematically it is very close to the title track. Because the wish to be remembered fondly can be applied not only to a lost love, but also to the mortality of life itself.
Even before the album was released, 'Hey Whiskey' had been released as a possible single candidate. And the ballad does a lot of things right. But anyone who has heard Hardy's song 'Jack' will have to admit that he knows how to make the fictional conversation with alcohol so much more intense. By comparison, 'Hey Whiskey' feels like a sweet rip-off of it.
'Some Songs Change Your World' attempts a bombastic guitar solo, but then surprises more with the realization that it's not really the lyrics or melody of a song that change our world, but rather the circumstances of life when you first hear a song. That way its individual meaning is projected onto the song.
The rest of the 13-song studio album remains endeavored but unfortunately does not really leave much of an impression.
Maybe it's the reason why Tim McGraw unexpectedly released new music on November 21, 2023, barely 3 months after his last studio album. The timing for it fell in with the Thanksgiving holiday and had him announce it accordingly: "In the spirit of being thankful, I’m so grateful for all of you and the ways you have supported me, my family, and my music thru the years. Here’s a little surprise drop of a few songs you’ve never heard. Enjoy!"
The new music are 6 songs, bundled in an EP titled "Poet's Resumé". And it's not really a surprise that Tim McGraw is not involved as a songwriter on any of them. Because he sees himself less as an author, but more as an interpreter with a feel for the right songs, regardless of who wrote them at the end of the day.
And in this case, some of Nashville's most renowned songwriters are among the writers of the 6 tracks: Tom Douglas, The Warren Brothers, Lori McKenna, Josh Osborne, Steve Dorff and Jeffrey Steele. The result sounds like it was written specifically for Tim McGraw: songs full of hope, self-awareness and reflection on the important things in life. They are songs that you might expect from an artist in the fourth decade of his career. And yet at the same time, everyone involved ensures that the project still offers some catchy music and does not get lost in the one-dimensionality of it's lyrics.
Legendary music critic Robert K Oermann wrote enthusiastically about the first track on the EP: "This is downright inspirational. To hear a modern country master at work, spin "Runnin’ Outta Love" by Tim McGraw. It is the Disc of the Day."
Indeed the song is more than just a catchy declaration of love. It is a statement that the power of a happy relationship can outshine all adversities in life. And 'Runnin' Outta Love' is probably the project's most radio-friendly song and therefore a valid candidate for a follow-up single to 'Standing Room Only'.
Written by Tom Douglas, Sara Beth Geoghegan and Brett Taylor, 'Hurt People' does not stick to the shiny surface but goes deeper. It uses a play on words that Rick Brantley had already applied in his excellent and deeply moving song of the same title in 2016. Namely the idea that people unconsciously do to others what has been done to themselves. That same concept is used in Tim McGraw's song:
broken people break people
...
lost people lose people,
left people leave people.
But in this piano ballad, the songwriters weave optimism into the theme by expressing the hope that bad experiences can be a motivator to not pass them on to others in the future.
So, maybe we can be
hurt people healin' people,
broken people fixin' people,
wounded people mendin' people.
People like you and me.
'20 for 30' begins with the realization of having clung to the age of 20 for too long.
In fact, for the last 30 years. But it is not that simple. After all, she fell
in love with the other person 30 years ago.
is the guy sometimes she wishes I'd give up.
Who she wants me to be and who I was,
it's hard for her 'cause she loves both of us.
The Warren Brothers have been working with Tim McGraw for a long time. So it's
no surprise that they include a reference to his wife Faith Hill, who comes
from the state of Mississippi, in the lyrics. They then switch the meaning of the
words from the initial accusation of not having grown up yet into a compliment
to their partner. And in the end the lyrics reaffirm the fact, that it does keep
us young if we are able to remember what it means to be young, inspite of all the
seriousness in life.
just a girl from Mississippi's all I see.
She says she's lookin' older but I have to disagree.
She's been twenty for thirty years to me.
The catchy, mid-tempo 'One Bad Habit' is another candidate for a radio-friendly single, in which he finds out, that he is her only bad habit: I'm her wild side, the only crazy thing she does, I hope she never quits me, I hope she never gives me up.
My personal favorite on the EP though is 'Been Around Awhile'. It talks about
the wisdom of life, that one can only gain over the years. And Tim McGraw
presents the track in a stirringly emotional way between touching keyboard and
blazing electric guitar.
I've been around a while.
Somehow found God on a hell-bound train,
I've lost friends, made some, broke hearts
in the name of love and it was worth every mile.
Yeah, I've been around a while.
The title track brings this extraordinary project full circle. Written by Lori McKenna, Josh Osborne and Scott Stepakoff, it tells the story of a poet (or songwriter) who dreams of success but never seems to achieve it. And so he earns extra money as a cook on weekdays, follows a love interest to the west, only to to be dumped and always remains on the lookout for the right words. What remains are merely sobering stages on a CV of a hopeful poet.
words on a napkin in dead languages.
Everybody loves him but no one ever stays.
Another whiskey to unwind, another less-than-perfect rhyme,
another wasted line on a poet's resumé.
With "Poet's Resumé" Tim McGraw presents a project that far outshines his last studio
album. Because it simply sounds authentic and as if it was his
resumé on what the important things in life really are.
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