Like many, country music has been a difficult genre to get into. Modern renditions of the genre have watered it down to a pale skeleton of what it should be. Luckily I have found a collection of modern artists along the way like Jason Eady, Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell that elevated my interest in the genre. When I get into a genre I not only look for the best, but also try to understand what makes the worst so horrendous. The most inescapable style of country right now, bro-country, happens to fit such label. Taking stereotypical country tropes and recycled lyrical content that became cliché faster than bro-country was popularized then watering down everything to fit in overly polished snippets of other genres seems to be the methodology for creating such music. I will admit I have found very few artists like Eric Paslay that pushed this shell to be enjoyable, but the majority like Sam Hunt have made a mockery of country music. Sam Hunt’s 2014 record Montevallo was littered with greasy synthetic instrumentation slathered over nauseating checklist writing. I’d never thought he could get any worse, but SOUTHSIDE proved me otherwise.

The record starts unsuspectedly with a simple ballad, “2016”. At first glance there isn’t anything outright terrible. It’s just a generic sounding country ballad with some personal reflections which aren’t that compelling but are fine… right? Wrong. In reality, it foreshadows the wash, rinse, and repeat instrumentation that becomes jarring after “2016” with counterintuitive drum machines that destroy any hope for the natural twang of guitars and banjos to sound good with a few excursions that result in even worst songs. Additionally, the “personal reflections” on “2016” are sappy showing Sam Hunt (hopefully it isn’t himself being portrayed explained later) feeling sorry for himself and trying to get his girlfriend back. To do so he found a roundabout way of admitting that he was in the wrong while not addressing the problems with part of the chorus “Put the tears back in your eyes; ‘Cause all my lies could still come true; I’d tell you everything was alright”. As SOUTHSIDE continues these unauthentic emotions transform into creepy, manipulative, mentally abusive behavior.

Right after “2016” we get the first unique track “Hard To Forget” which starts off with a cool sample of some old dusty country vocals that is quickly decapitated being chopped up and layered with a frustratingly stiff hip-hop beat. Adding more reasons to lower all expectations of the record getting better are disgustingly obsessive lyrics. Sam Hunt states that he sees this girl’s family at work, church, and the mall along with her at a party in what sounds like a small town if we’re sticking to the clichés he crams in throughout the record which makes sense why you would see everyone in that town everywhere. He then plays mental gymnastics to come to the conclusion that she must miss him and is trying to make it hard for him to forget about her when in fact he is the one that can’t get over her with an underlying tone of stalker tendencies. Luckily and unluckily we get a break from infuriating behavior with the next few tracks that are more boring and annoying than anything. “Kinfolks” is an overly sentimental song about just meeting a girl and wanting her to meet his family and close friends along with going to see his hometown. There’s also this level of impatience Sam Hunt gives off with how he “don’t wanna wait around for the right time” which feels like he is trying to get her invested into the relationship without time to think. Some may think this is an over examination of the lyrics, but “Hard To Forget” before it and more tracks later in the album with repulsive behavior reveals questionable inclusions within “Kinfolks” and other tracks.

The next song “Young Once” doesn’t seem to have any traits like the rest besides being obnoxious. Sam Hunt’s stuttery delivery and autotuned vocal layering in the back of the mix sound horrible especially on the chorus where he doubles down on both. Plus the whole “when we were young” motif is one-dimensional with some laughably terrible attempts at catering to country fans like with the line “Cheap thrills, doing things in the wheat fields” which I am willing to bet is not and will never be a country thing. We then get the single that plagues anyone who who has to hear a bland pop radio station, “Body Like a Back Road”. Echoing finger snaps, gang chants that should only be in hardcore hip-hop and crunk, oily banjos, and another misinformed attempt to appeal to country culture by making the unsexy comparison between a woman’s body and a back road come together in the epitome of making a joke out of country music through bro-country. Following is an example of mental abusive and manipulation done with spoken word which only makes the lyrics about pointing out every one of her flaws and awful situations she has gotten into then insinuating that she could and should be better with some like Sam Hunt feel vile and makes me sick.

Things don’t get any better from here with more emotional manipulation and bitchy attitude on “Let It Down”. Pretty much the song is just Sam Hunt crying about the same two ways he would be hurt if this woman left the relationship and demanding for her to get over what happened. The exclusion of why it is ending only makes think that this behavior is why and the lady is smart to leave. “Downtown’s Dead” follows as another sappy and sleepy song about feeling lonely, but the one thing that irks me the most is the faint intro dialogue “Thanks, Hannah, thanks for coming back” which after some research is Sam Hunt’s current wife who went through a rocky road with him before getting married. I hope the songs off of SOUTHSIDE aren’t actually about their struggles to get together or else I have an essay worth of questions to ask. Moving on we have “Nothing Lasts Forever” which uses yet another cliché metaphor in which the song is named after. And once again more shitty behavior where Sam Hunt demands his ex-lover to not only say that he was the best she ever had, but also for her to tell him that she is guilty, childish, stupid, lonely, etc. on the bridge. All adjectives more suited for him. He also tries to make her think that she hates herself with the lyric “Or listen to my old voicemails, and hate yourself; For still feelin’ somethin’ when we’re nothing” only increasing the despicable gaslighting across the record.

Continuing the gaslighting behavior, Sam Hunt compares his love for her with that of God and implies that God wants them to be together on “Sinning With You”. Just like everything else on SOUTHSIDE just because you want her doesn’t mean she is inclined to be with you even if you shroud it in religious imagery. Speaking of lyrical sins, “Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90’s” is overloaded with them. The lazy attempt to draw in nostalgia junkies by throwing in a decade into the song name and chorus is pathetic. Even more pathetic is Sam Hunt complaining about how breaking up nowadays is soooo difficult because of social media reminding him of his ex-lover. I get this can be harsh while the break up is still fresh in your mind, and that’s why you should put down the phone and leave social media for a while instead of exposing your victim complex. It almost comes off as he refuses to and wants to know everything she’s doing which once again is stalker behavior. Finally we get to the final track “Drinkin’ Too Much” which brings together every horrible thing about SOUTHSIDE yet and then some. Sam Hunt starts off saying he feels like a hypocrite (which he is) and decides to drink it away. The problem is this is the most sober he has sounded yet and he obviously was sober when writing this. Not wasting any time he begins “apologizing” for bringing attention to her and her hometown Montevallo and how she can’t get any privacy now that the world knows about them with no sense of care from his voice. Directly after he offers to pay her student loans with the songs he made because of her just to play the superhero in the whole situation. In the second verse he ponders about his stance on lying then acts like a god because he told the truth to her. She then leaves and Sam Hunt goes on about her being a mess and crying in a bathtub.

Many albums bore me, frustrate me, and annoy me. Almost never does an album piss me off as much as SOUTHSIDE does. The majority of issues can be summed up on the dumpster fire closing track “Drinkin’ Too Much”: bland and obnoxious made exponentially worst with Sam Hunt’s manipulative, stalker, gaslighting, mentally abusive, and bitchy attitude. I have a high level of disdain for the album where even the “best” song “2016” would be the worst track on any standard country album. He took the douchey behavior of bro-country and drove it further into the ground. After researching that Sam Hunt and his wife Hannah had a hard time getting together, I can only hope he had some ghostwriters or purposely embellished the lyrics to cater to the beer bellies of backwoods America or else there are somehow greater problems to address in the similarities. I tried to keep this review to a medium length and stay as professional as possible, but I had to break my personal philosophies of being a critic for a moment in order to fully convey what will probably be the worst record of the decade not even a full year in.

Best Track: “2016” because it only bores me to death

Worst Track: “Drinkin’ Too Much”

Rating: 0/10

Released: 04/03/2020

Label: MCA Nashville

Genre: Bro-Country

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RATING SCALE

Perfect Excellent Great Very Good Good Meh Disappointing Bad Horrible Pitiful Bottom of the Barrel