As concepts go, taking Margaritaville to Spring Break isn’t the worst in the world, more songs about girls and parties with a hootenanny here and a love affair there and the doofus Luke Bryant MCing the never ending party for post-teen Americans with their first taste of freedom. That’s the concept. The practice as is abundantly clear on this sixth EP of Spring Break concept EPs is self evident: he isn’t good enough however much he sells. And I am not a Buffet fan.
From the over textured drums that open the EP and “She gets me high, she gets me low” level of lyrics, to the generic anemic “The Sand I Brought To The Beach” plodder which finds Luke high and dry and lonely with his pals at Panama City, and the four songs in the middle, this is painful. The question that rises is which college kids are going to react well to a country music with a simple poppified modern country blahdom. At least last years version of Springbreak had “If You Ain’t Here To Party” and “Take My Drunk Ass Home”, which made the effort to offer an anthem, Like We Ain’t Ever is a series of romance stories that doesn’t even attempt to reach lift off; the title track is the only thing that comes close… intentionally, amazingly enough, Bryant wants to refine the recipe by showing more, you know, heart.
As the poster boy for everything wrong with modern country, the 36 year old Bryant isn’t quite what he presents to himself to be. At 19 his big brother died in a car accident and Luke went to work on his pop’s farm while going to college and singing in bar bands. A past like that will give you a work ethic to build on, it is the real deal and a million miles away from these odes to mindlessness. Mindlessness is fine but it can’t read like mindlessness; whatever consciousness Bryant has, he doesn’t bring to his work, His own Spring Breaks might not have been anything like those he sings about but it might make for some interesting songs, even though I don’t think Luke’s problem is the angle of his songs. As it is, Luke presents, if not its worst instincts, certainly country at its laziest. He rides mainstream pop instincts to a crafted sound so soundalike, so manufactured, so just plain bad.
When people cry about country, they cry about this guy. At 36 years old, Luke might be there to let people party and there is nothing wrong with that. Except the songs .
Grade: C-
