Tuesday, February 5, 2013

New Single: Dead Weight by Crystal Bowersox


This morning, Crystal Bowersox premiered her soon-to-be released single, Dead Weight, on the Ryan Seacrest show. The song style is folk-tinged, acoustical country with a comforting, reassuring message about leaving behind life's negative baggage, and moving forward with a clean, positive outlook.

Her sophomore LP, All That For This, is scheduled for release in March. Being a Mama/Frankie purist, no Crystal album will ever be able to surpass her gorgeous EP Once Upon A Time, but my opinion is VERY favorable of what lies ahead based on what I heard today.

Although there's some similarities between Dead Weight and certain tracks from her debut LP Farmer's Daughter (think Mine All Mine, Arlene, Holy Toledo and Finally Got It Right), this departs a bit from the overall roots-rock formula. Rich harmonies give Dead Weight a sing-a-long anthem appeal so prevalent today in modern folk-rock artists like Phillip Phillips, Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers, though softer and gentler in nature.

Bottom line: I enjoyed the song overall, and think the more you listen the more it grows on you. Mama's pristine vocals are beautiful as ever, and it should be ear-wormy to a wide audience. My only criticism would be it went a bit long for a single (4:32). Chopping off the final repeat chorus would've definitely helped its radio appeal, and made it tighter.

What say you?

~Kenny Poo

2 comments:

  1. Crystal Has allways been a Balladeer...the lenght being more than 3/30..40 might make "radio stations" shy from it, but not the "home listening" fan's and public
    Dane E.J.Huffman

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  2. Dane, I certainly don't want Crystal to sell out and go commercial, just observing the song is long for radio. Radio drives album sales, and I'd like to see her succeed. I'm a big fan.

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