Haley Georgia burst some eardrums and disrespected country music with her debut single "Ridiculous," which was named by many people the worst country song of 2015. It seems like she's moved passed that song, maybe because all the criticism of the track, even going so far as to delete both the music video and lyric video from her YouTube channel. This EP isn't good, and it sure isn't country, but at least Georgia attempted to be somewhat country, and it sounds like it for the most part comes from the heart, which was something that was severely lacking in "Ridiculous."
It's hard to be so critical of Haley Georgia because of how hard it is to be a woman in country music already. But Georgia is an example of what not to do: make bro country songs as a woman. Maggie Rose already tried it out, with the disaster that was "Girl in Your Truck Song." Kelsea Ballerini attempted with "Looking At Stars." But this whole EP consists of songs that could be sung by men (with the exception of "Pretty Girls"), and not just men, but those men, the ones who sing the degrading songs that Maddie & Tae criticized in "Girl in a Country Song."
The EP recalls a high school Iove, but not a high school love that seemed serious at all, at least emotionally. The hook of "Prom Night" goes: "You're looking so good I think I just might..." leaving the rest of that sentence to your imagination. It's not bad to talk about sex in a song, not bad at all, but bringing up prom night so blatantly like that, and not connecting any emotion to the night but him looking good doesn't sound very good. This track is the opener, so it should be a song that draws the listener in to keep listening. But this song is almost hard to listen to, with the production and her voice being so in your face.
"Way We Was," "Glory Daze" and "Prom Night" all are about basically the same thing, and all sound basically the same. And the grammatical mistake in "Way We Was" recalls Ariana Grande's miss in "Breaking Free," when she said "who I really are." Besides that, this song isn't awful, but again, it's a bro country song, with the line "still toss back that occasional jack trying to kill that buzz, the way we was," sounding like it came straight out of a Chase Rice or Florida Georgia Line song. That line makes it clear that the mistake was to ease rhyming. It's lazy. Lazy shouldn't make it onto a record.
The EP recalls a high school Iove, but not a high school love that seemed serious at all, at least emotionally. The hook of "Prom Night" goes: "You're looking so good I think I just might..." leaving the rest of that sentence to your imagination. It's not bad to talk about sex in a song, not bad at all, but bringing up prom night so blatantly like that, and not connecting any emotion to the night but him looking good doesn't sound very good. This track is the opener, so it should be a song that draws the listener in to keep listening. But this song is almost hard to listen to, with the production and her voice being so in your face.
"Way We Was," "Glory Daze" and "Prom Night" all are about basically the same thing, and all sound basically the same. And the grammatical mistake in "Way We Was" recalls Ariana Grande's miss in "Breaking Free," when she said "who I really are." Besides that, this song isn't awful, but again, it's a bro country song, with the line "still toss back that occasional jack trying to kill that buzz, the way we was," sounding like it came straight out of a Chase Rice or Florida Georgia Line song. That line makes it clear that the mistake was to ease rhyming. It's lazy. Lazy shouldn't make it onto a record.
The only song that is decidedly country is the title track, "Pretty Girls." The verses of the song have an uncanny similarity to Kip Moore's "Hey Pretty Girl," but the song has a lovely melody. I don't know if Georgia had a double meaning of the song in mind when she wrote it, but if she did, she's a better writer than I ever thought she was. The song presents the idea of a "pretty girl," and brings in many cliches, and almost indicates that you have to be a certain way to be a pretty girl. But the song also has undertones of negativity of being that kind of pretty girl. Georgia presents different possibilities that seem popular and great on the top, but also have a sad reason. Like "pretty girls keep about ten best friends, so when one screws up they just move to the next." And then "pretty girls know how to keep boys around, by doing things mama don't like talking about." The song shows that being the popular, pretty girl isn't all it's cracked up to be, adding emotional depth to Georgia's music, not found in any song until this one.
She has thrown away "Ridiculous," but it still doesn't make this EP country. The only this vaguely country are her twangy vocals, but that doesn't make the EP country. Writing and producing pop songs and adding banjos/mandolins on top of them is cheap, and again, lazy. If you're going to write a country song, make it sound like a country song. If you're going to write a pop song, make it sound like a pop song. Of course, there are always exceptions to that rule, but passing off pop as country is country music's biggest problem, one that Georgia is keeping alive with this EP.
This mixtape is not good, but at least with "Pretty Girls", it seems that Georgia is trying to be a country music artist. Maybe Georgia is scared to be a pop artist. It's obvious she's from the south, with her heavy accent, and maybe she's scared to try to be a southern pop singer. But she really needs to do that, and leave country music alone. Because calling this mixtape country is still pretty out there, and she hasn't shown enough dedication to country music to forgive her for that.
Best track: Pretty Girls
Throwaway track: Prom Night
Overall rating: 3 crowns
She has thrown away "Ridiculous," but it still doesn't make this EP country. The only this vaguely country are her twangy vocals, but that doesn't make the EP country. Writing and producing pop songs and adding banjos/mandolins on top of them is cheap, and again, lazy. If you're going to write a country song, make it sound like a country song. If you're going to write a pop song, make it sound like a pop song. Of course, there are always exceptions to that rule, but passing off pop as country is country music's biggest problem, one that Georgia is keeping alive with this EP.
This mixtape is not good, but at least with "Pretty Girls", it seems that Georgia is trying to be a country music artist. Maybe Georgia is scared to be a pop artist. It's obvious she's from the south, with her heavy accent, and maybe she's scared to try to be a southern pop singer. But she really needs to do that, and leave country music alone. Because calling this mixtape country is still pretty out there, and she hasn't shown enough dedication to country music to forgive her for that.
Best track: Pretty Girls
Throwaway track: Prom Night
Overall rating: 3 crowns
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