Though he was formerly a Nashville newcomer struggling to be noticed, Luke Bryan seems to approaching top-drawer status after the two-week-number-one success of his recent smash "Rain Is a Good Thing." His follow-up single, "Someone Else Calling You Baby," is unlikely to damage his relationship with country radio, but it is not likely to win him any new fans either.
What made "Rain Is a Good Thing" work so well as a single? Quirky, clever lyrics! Character-infused vocals! Ridiculously catchy fiddle-laden production! The song reached out from the radio and grabbed us, and it was nearly impossible to resist.
Therein lies the main weakness of "Someone Else Calling You Baby" - Nothing about it hooks me like "Rain Is a Good Thing" did. It's only real potential is to be mildly entertaining between radio commercials. Though it is helped by tasteful production and solid vocals, it is ultimately done in by a bland and generic method of storytelling. Luke's character has seen his woman with another man, and he begs to know if she is cheating. He says that he does not want to be "in the dark," but the situations described make it seem painfully obvious that his woman is indeed cheating on him. The lyrics are straightforward, making no attempts at poetic language, story twists, or anything that could separate it from the countless other cheating songs in the country genre.
This is not necessarily a bad single. It's just uninteresting. That's a big disappointment from such a promising artist who has already shown that he can do much better.
LUKE'S SCORE: 5
(Scores are given on a scale of 1 to 10)
