Billy Currington - little bit of EVERYTHING

Country Music Album Reviews

Billy Currington - little bit of EVERYTHING (sic)

Billy Currington WAS a great prospect. The guy can sing, he can write. If he cut his hair and shaved, he'd even look the part.

But if his latest offering - "little bit of EVERYTHING" (sic) is anything to go by, he has as much promise as a US banker's draft!

This is a mish-mash of bad pop songs sung without feeling and with very little to recommend them at all.

I worried when I saw that Currington's label don't know - apparently - that sentences begin with a capital letter. (The way we've titled this review is the way the label insists it should be.

I worried more when I saw the label had decided to start an album released as the leaves fall and winter rolls in with a song about high summer.

"Swimmin' In Sunshine" sounds like a poor pop song from the summer of 1974 - complete with "la da da da's" at the end!!! Appalling. The organ/electronic piano strolling through the backing is dulling and the whole thing sort of stutters.

My problem is that things didn't improve with track two, "Life, Love And The Meaning Of ".  I'm certain the lyrics are heartfelt and the writers have problems working out the meaning of life, the universe and everything, but this high speed romp is cliched and laden with meaningless meaningfulness!!  RUBBISH!!

I was debating not telling you any more when I hit track three: Finally Currington sings a Country song. On "Every Reason Not To Go" he sounds like a latter-day Glen Campbell. It's a good song, both lyrically and musically. 
My problem now is that I want to hear Campbell sing it. I just know he could do it better. 

This isn't getting any better is it?

Briefly, it does: "People Are Crazy" is a gentle Country song of the kind that Currington excels at and "No-One Has Eyes Like You" COULD be a great song. Somehow, the production makes it sound like a great John Denver song sung really badly.

For the rest, it really is dire as Currington stumbles through a collection of dull songs. "Don't" is a soft edged pop song and "Everything" is nothing;. The lyrics on "Walk On" are so corny, they're simply atrocious!  "Heal Me" is a power pop ballad which - while it shows how well the man can sing - also demonstrates how appalling the material is!

Of course no Country album these days (according to Nashville) would be complete without a reference, however oblique, to Redneck America. "That's How Country Boys Roll" is this album's version.

You've heard it - with different lyrics and melodies - hundreds of times before: Country boys work hard all week, get drunk on Friday, go fishing on Saturday and then roll into church still hungover on Sunday mornings.

Shame on you, Billy, for missing Church!!!

Currington even offers up a kind of Marty Robbins song with "I Shall Return" - all cantinas and dancing by a rambling man set on moving on.

I have one thought from this track: PLEASE DON'T RETURN until you have something worth hearing to offer.