Expectations… not met.
New albums on the horizon are often an exciting opportunity for country music fans. With that excitement often comes expectations, and sometimes, when those projects finally arrive at our doorstep (A.K.A. music streaming services), they can fall flat.
There’s nothing more disappointing than an underwhelming album, especially if it happens to come from one of your favorite artists. Right now, a number of Eric Church fans have expressed disappointment with his latest endeavor, Evangeline vs The Machine, citing it’s departure from his traditional country rock sound for a more soulful, Gospel, whatever you want to call it kind of sounds. They’re wrong, but it makes you think… do you have any projects that come to mind that missed the mark? Surely everyone has put on their headphones to listen to a new album at some point, only to get a few songs in and say, “Well this wasn’t what I was expecting.” At least in the modern day of music consumption, there’s not a lot of buyer’s remorse since fans can just drop in and drop out of projects without it costing them anything extra.
But I kind of got to thinking recently… what are some albums that really missed the mark, from some of the biggest names in country music? I decided to not include any novelty albums – like Willie Nelson’s reggae album Countryman, or Dolly Parton’s rock-cover album Rockstar – because those aren’t what the artists are known for. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
As for artists and bands that simply try to keep doing what they are doing, only to put out something forgettable? Well… that brings us to this list of four times that big named country artists missed the mark.
Blake Shelton – The Dreamer (2003)
Shelton’s 2003 album The Dreamer is the first of two on this list that you could categorize as a “sophomore slump.” Artists often talk about how a lot can be poured into those debut albums, leaving the follow-up to often leave fans with much to be desired.
That certainly happened to Blake Shelton with The Dreamer. The only hit song that came out of the project was “The Baby,” and even that isn’t considered one of his best as his catalogue has grown. But after he came out of the gate swinging with “Austin” and “Ol’ Red,” this record just didn’t have the juice. Go ahead and try to name any other song from that album (other than the title track)… I dare you. Maybe “Playboys of the Southwestern World” if you can remember that one? But besides “The Baby,” the rest just seemed like empty, country music filler.
Blake would turn it around on the next record though, which featured three straight top 10 singles and he would go on to become one of the most successful country music artists of the past 25 years.
Garth Brooks – Man Against Machine (2014)
Sheesh… I could probably do an entire story completely based on the disappointment of Garth Brooks’ comeback album Man Against Machine. 13 years had passed since his last album when Man Against Machine came out… and there was certainly some rust that needed to be knocked off.
When you listen to the title track of the project, it almost feels like its a parody of Garth. And don’t even get me started on the cover, or how when it the album first came out, fans were directed to buy it off of “Ghost Tunes,” an online music store that Garth had created.
After all that time, Garth fans were excited that one of the greatest entertainers the genre has ever seen was officially BACK. But… it just fell flat.
Zac Brown Band – The Owl (2019)
One of the biggest bombs on the list is the sixth studio album from the Zac Brown Band – The Owl. Released in 2019, everyone was ready for the country styling of Zac Brown and the boys to continue. Their previous album, Welcome Home, was produced by Dave Cobb, but for this project, it was 180 in the other direction.
Brown tried to infuse some hip hop and EDM with country (much like the music you hear on Broadway in Nashville), and it just really didn’t work. It’s really a strange outlier in the Zac Brown Band catalogue, and it undoubtedly missed the mark. And there’s nothing wrong with stepping outside the box and pushing the boundaries, but it was just… BAD.
The song “God Given,” where Zac raps about Gucci bags, diamonds, and Lamborghinis is a great example of how head-scratching everything about it was. And the worst part of all of it was that rather than owning it, Zac essentially called his fans too stupid and uncultured to understand it. And then he doubled down with a solo project that was even worse… if you could believe that.
Sam Hunt- Southside (2020)
Here’s the second sophomore album that didn’t necessarily live up to the hype. Say what you want about the quality of the music, or the ramifications for the genre, but Sam Hunt came roaring out of the gate with 2014’s Montevallo. He was a cultural phenomenon and rising country music superstar, destined for a similar trajectory to Morgan Wallen right now. He was one of the first mainstream country stars to blend hip hop, R&B, and country… and sound good doing it. But rather than striking while the iron was hot, he just kinda… chilled. A few years later, he followed up his first project with a number of certifiable hit singles, like “Body Like A Backroad” and “Drinkin’ Too Much,” but another album was nowhere to be found.
There were some inklings that he might opt to move in a more traditional country direction… praise for Sturgill Simpson, messing around with some bluegrass, but by the time the album came out, some of the songs on it were two to three years old. After Montevallo all signs were pointing towards his second album being a huge success, but after nearly 6 years, between the two, the hype had died, the industry had changed, more traditional acts like Luke Combs had exploded, and Sam was more of an afterthought. The shine was off the apple.
The album was largely the same as his previous sound, there wasn’t much depth to the lyrics of Southside, and the formerly released hit singles being included on the album still stood out as the best that the project had to offer… but old news. It almost felt like Hunt didn’t want to be in the spotlight anymore, or wanted to chase a different sound, but felt pressured to build an album around the successful singles, and that turned out to be a losing strategy. Honestly, I’d love to ask him someday…
“2016” was one of the standouts from that record:
