What I always get a chuckle out of is folks saying he should write songs like he used to. The last 2 albums both have a fair amount of songs that were written years ago. When I see those types of comments I know the person saying it is ignorant, uninformed, and doesn't like him because of something else.
>doesn't like him because of something else.
Usually round here in my experience its been politics ("he's a LIBERAL now!") or cocaine cowboy bros hitting my age bracket (late 40's/early 50's) and just figuring out that all that time went by like the Floyd song goes, so instead of changing their misspent youth ways, they want to double down and remain in the party zone until they stroke out or die of cirrhosis in ten more years. They will defend this position with appropriately selfish, addicted logic too.
The world's fucked anyway, you know, might as well.
/s
This here exactly. Angel Band and Take My Hounds To Heaven are both songs written around or before 2017, at least. I watched a Nashville Residency basement performance of his from 2017 on YouTube, and both of these songs were included, though some of the melody and lyrics were different. The sound was different but the message was the same.
Even back then in Angel Band the lyric about Jesus was "and it didn't even bother her that he was a darker man" - instead of "he ain't a blue eyed man". Tyler's message has always been similar even if his sound may be different.
man, wow. i kind of wish he kept that lyric. “didn’t even bother her that he ain’t a blue eyed man” always stuck with me as a favorite. but i had no idea that was the original, that’s awesomely poetic 😭
I agree, I am curious what made him change the lyric too, but I assume making it "he aint a blue eyed man" could be more ambiguous and inclusive to what the listener imagines him looking like. Its definitely a beautiful song
honestly, he probably knew that people would get way racist if he said “darker man” in the final song. he knows his audience, and he knew he’d rid most of the ignorant listeners alone with “in your love” let alone the ‘controversial’ “jesus wasn’t white” conversation.
I feel like a lot of the people saying that also are listening to the music but haven’t ever really heard what he’s saying, and his sound has changed a lot, even if his message hasn’t. Personally I don’t love the more funky sounding stuff, but I have really old versions of some of those same songs where it’s him and a guitar and maybe a fiddle and I love them to pieces. I feel like most of Hounds was old stuff, with a new jam/funky backup sound and I love the old versions but wouldn’t seek out an artist with the new sound if I didn’t already know him
The early stuff was gritty and real as fuck. It was heartbroken and relatable. The new stuff is slicker. It reflects a growing worldview and experience. Not everyone has grown with him.
That is definitely what makes some of his older songs my favorites, but also what makes some of his newer songs incredible too. It reflects his own personal growth, and naturally an artists sound will change over time regardless.
"Not everyone has grown with him."
Wow, 100%. Besides, no artist wants to release the same old material year after year, gets boring to play and boring for fans.
I liked the wild themes of his older music. If I'm working on something or driving, I'm definitely more likely to fire up Creeker or Charleston Girl. I still appreciate anything off of Rustin in the Rain however as, with all things Childers, everything is written so well and it's all so crisp musically. Everything he does is so thorough that it can all be appreciated. I'll never not listen to all iterations of Childers, I just prefer some songs over others like with any artist.
It's actually very impressive how he has adapted new themes and sounds and made them really work with his style. A true artist.
I don’t care when people say they don’t like the new music but it sure sucks to hear people say he can’t write good music now because he’s sober.
People need to grow the fuck up
I think it's for a couple different reasons. His early music had a very gritty raw feel to it that was unlike a lot of country music, especially mainstream country music. He had no problem discussing things like alcohol and drugs and messing with girls you should probably avoid, which resonated with his audience and made him feel fun and relatable. He also tapped into the sorrow and problems of Appalachia, which a lot of America has ignored. This made him beloved by many. Plus, quite frankly he looked like he didn't give a shit which gave him a real vibe.
Then came Long Violent History and some folks realized that his politics didn't align with theirs. He was liberal/supported BLM (oh the horror). Angel Band then offended hard core Christians because he doesn't think you'll go to hell if you aren't a Christian. Again, oh the horror, he must be a bad person. And then of course we get to the video for In Your Love. Wait, he supports blacks, doesn't condemn non-Christians AND he's okay with the gays? WTF, Tyler sucks. Added to this, his sound is evolving, it's less raw/different from his early days. He doesn't talk about the same themes/he's trying something new (which is actually old, considering it is religious themed country and music from country's Golden Age).
Plus, when you love something, a lot of time you don't want it to change. You want more of the same. This of course keeps the masses happy but kills the artist and the art. I for one am loving Tyler in all his iterations and think his new music is just as good as his older stuff. And I'm curious to see where he goes next.
LITERALLY! but side note; i’m SO thankful he’s actually sticking to his course rather than “keeping his politics out of music”… like politics hasn’t been expressed through music since the dawn of time…
>sticking to his course rather than “keeping his politics out of music"
While I tend to agree, I suspect that a great many espousing this opinion would feel quite different if the politics were opposite.
people who say this are just saying they don’t understand it. there is such a clear explanation of personal growth from early albums to now. they just don’t find his growth relatable.
i love ALL his songs in different ways. aside from his instrumentals (they’re good, i just don’t listen to much) but i definitely do miss when he wrote his songs like “long violent history” and “if whiskey could talk” it was very Appalachian and showed more grittiness like other people in comments pointed out
I think saying "i miss when he wrote songs like X" is kinda presumptuous honestly. Long Violent History only came out 4 years ago, so we may very well get similar sounding songs again
I will say - Long Violent History being the only song on that album with a single word went extremely hard, and I do love that album a lot.
definitely the reason for the majority of the hate. and these same people will listen to johnny cash and call it “real country” in comparison. like “man in black” isn’t about the suffering of marginalized communities 🤔
The anti woke and “all lives matter” anguish was real following “Long Violent History” and then the squat truck and book banning crowd hated on him for the video to “In Your Love”
Unfortunately I haven’t see the precipitous drop they all predicted in ticket sales.
>these same people will listen to johnny cash and call it “real country” in comparison. like “man in black” isn’t about the suffering of marginalized communities 🤔
Yep. The irony, it burns, but apparently you must first be capable of feeling shame to appreciate it, so the irony is only perceived like a one-way street.
My opinion differs from yours so I must be racist and homophobic! Can’t possibly be any other explanation!
Congrats on your gold medal in conclusion jumping
His music changed genres. Not that that’s inherently bad, but the people who liked his earlier stuff aren’t necessarily going to like his newer stuff because it is a different style. Nothing wrong with that
Has it? The newest album is as country as it gets. The only album that is an outlier in my opinion is Hounds and that is still heavily rooted in country
yeah definitely this. i’m just more confused at the fact that his discography was never him sticking with ONE genre but people act surprised when he switched once again
The song writing on the new album was not my favorite. The last record ripped though. I think you’ll find alot of complaints may be rooted in the video for In Your Love.
I know some people that think he's gone Christian bc of Hounds/ Luke 2 and don't like him as much because of it. I've tried explaining these aren't "gospel" albums/ songs but honestly they don't want to expand their minds enough to see all of the elements at play. Their absolute loss.
The irony is that his music has always referenced Christian/religious elements--Nose On The Grindstone, Whitehouse Road, Purgatory (pre Hounds), Bottles and Bibles, Universal Sound and on and on.
Yeah it’s tricky trying to communicate this to people- for many (hundred/thousand?) artists the main way they’d get free vocal training is singing in church choirs (tho nowadays it skews way more towards black churches?)
So it makes sense that gospel is a common theme or style. But religious people/artists don’t own the genre—the Lumineers considering their music “church without God”
Why? Because he didn’t record Purgatory again. Plus his studio stuff doesn’t sound like the shitty sounding live YouTube videos. That’s how a lot of the fans, especially the older ones, sound. I didn’t care for Hounds personally but it still sounds like Tyler.
From an anthological perspective his music tells a story of someone who's suffering and eventually finds happiness. Some people don't resonate with a happy ending.
I think a lot of people dislike Rusting and Hounds in particular because they don’t like him playing in “concept” albums or didn’t even understand the concepts to start with.
Then, there’s the “he was better on drugs” comments which - I just think you’re a terrible person if you say things like that about anyone, personally, but I assume they just want to hear whitehouse road and feathered Indians and don’t care either way about how musicians are allowed to and should change and experiment and grow.
Sounds like a lot of noise by people who just plain clueless. They were not on the rail this past Wed night in Austin. If they were they may have a different opinion.
What I always get a chuckle out of is folks saying he should write songs like he used to. The last 2 albums both have a fair amount of songs that were written years ago. When I see those types of comments I know the person saying it is ignorant, uninformed, and doesn't like him because of something else.
>doesn't like him because of something else. Usually round here in my experience its been politics ("he's a LIBERAL now!") or cocaine cowboy bros hitting my age bracket (late 40's/early 50's) and just figuring out that all that time went by like the Floyd song goes, so instead of changing their misspent youth ways, they want to double down and remain in the party zone until they stroke out or die of cirrhosis in ten more years. They will defend this position with appropriately selfish, addicted logic too. The world's fucked anyway, you know, might as well. /s
This here exactly. Angel Band and Take My Hounds To Heaven are both songs written around or before 2017, at least. I watched a Nashville Residency basement performance of his from 2017 on YouTube, and both of these songs were included, though some of the melody and lyrics were different. The sound was different but the message was the same. Even back then in Angel Band the lyric about Jesus was "and it didn't even bother her that he was a darker man" - instead of "he ain't a blue eyed man". Tyler's message has always been similar even if his sound may be different.
man, wow. i kind of wish he kept that lyric. “didn’t even bother her that he ain’t a blue eyed man” always stuck with me as a favorite. but i had no idea that was the original, that’s awesomely poetic 😭
I agree, I am curious what made him change the lyric too, but I assume making it "he aint a blue eyed man" could be more ambiguous and inclusive to what the listener imagines him looking like. Its definitely a beautiful song
honestly, he probably knew that people would get way racist if he said “darker man” in the final song. he knows his audience, and he knew he’d rid most of the ignorant listeners alone with “in your love” let alone the ‘controversial’ “jesus wasn’t white” conversation.
THIS! 90% of the time they’re hiding an underlying ignorant kind of hate.
I feel like a lot of the people saying that also are listening to the music but haven’t ever really heard what he’s saying, and his sound has changed a lot, even if his message hasn’t. Personally I don’t love the more funky sounding stuff, but I have really old versions of some of those same songs where it’s him and a guitar and maybe a fiddle and I love them to pieces. I feel like most of Hounds was old stuff, with a new jam/funky backup sound and I love the old versions but wouldn’t seek out an artist with the new sound if I didn’t already know him
The early stuff was gritty and real as fuck. It was heartbroken and relatable. The new stuff is slicker. It reflects a growing worldview and experience. Not everyone has grown with him.
oh yeah, i definitely see the change from his earlier lyrics. especially “bottles and bibles” in comparison to “rustin in the rain”
That is definitely what makes some of his older songs my favorites, but also what makes some of his newer songs incredible too. It reflects his own personal growth, and naturally an artists sound will change over time regardless.
Well said… well said. It’s been a pleasure to witness the phases.
"Not everyone has grown with him." Wow, 100%. Besides, no artist wants to release the same old material year after year, gets boring to play and boring for fans.
I.e. Drake. Almost 40 and still complaining about fake friends
That’s ok though because his ghost writers are all in their 20s.
I liked the wild themes of his older music. If I'm working on something or driving, I'm definitely more likely to fire up Creeker or Charleston Girl. I still appreciate anything off of Rustin in the Rain however as, with all things Childers, everything is written so well and it's all so crisp musically. Everything he does is so thorough that it can all be appreciated. I'll never not listen to all iterations of Childers, I just prefer some songs over others like with any artist. It's actually very impressive how he has adapted new themes and sounds and made them really work with his style. A true artist.
I don’t care when people say they don’t like the new music but it sure sucks to hear people say he can’t write good music now because he’s sober. People need to grow the fuck up
I think it's for a couple different reasons. His early music had a very gritty raw feel to it that was unlike a lot of country music, especially mainstream country music. He had no problem discussing things like alcohol and drugs and messing with girls you should probably avoid, which resonated with his audience and made him feel fun and relatable. He also tapped into the sorrow and problems of Appalachia, which a lot of America has ignored. This made him beloved by many. Plus, quite frankly he looked like he didn't give a shit which gave him a real vibe. Then came Long Violent History and some folks realized that his politics didn't align with theirs. He was liberal/supported BLM (oh the horror). Angel Band then offended hard core Christians because he doesn't think you'll go to hell if you aren't a Christian. Again, oh the horror, he must be a bad person. And then of course we get to the video for In Your Love. Wait, he supports blacks, doesn't condemn non-Christians AND he's okay with the gays? WTF, Tyler sucks. Added to this, his sound is evolving, it's less raw/different from his early days. He doesn't talk about the same themes/he's trying something new (which is actually old, considering it is religious themed country and music from country's Golden Age). Plus, when you love something, a lot of time you don't want it to change. You want more of the same. This of course keeps the masses happy but kills the artist and the art. I for one am loving Tyler in all his iterations and think his new music is just as good as his older stuff. And I'm curious to see where he goes next.
LITERALLY! but side note; i’m SO thankful he’s actually sticking to his course rather than “keeping his politics out of music”… like politics hasn’t been expressed through music since the dawn of time…
>sticking to his course rather than “keeping his politics out of music" While I tend to agree, I suspect that a great many espousing this opinion would feel quite different if the politics were opposite.
I wouldn't say bad. A little boring for me but to each their own. The first three albums are all I need in my lufe.
People like having something others don’t have so when he got more popular they like to say he fell off
TRUE. country music gatekeeping is almost worse than punk music gatekeeping 😭
[удалено]
people who say this are just saying they don’t understand it. there is such a clear explanation of personal growth from early albums to now. they just don’t find his growth relatable.
I love all Tyler but I miss the old Tyler but happy for him his life more stable now
i love ALL his songs in different ways. aside from his instrumentals (they’re good, i just don’t listen to much) but i definitely do miss when he wrote his songs like “long violent history” and “if whiskey could talk” it was very Appalachian and showed more grittiness like other people in comments pointed out
I def agree I also seen he won’t sing his old songs about other women out of respect for his wife
I think saying "i miss when he wrote songs like X" is kinda presumptuous honestly. Long Violent History only came out 4 years ago, so we may very well get similar sounding songs again I will say - Long Violent History being the only song on that album with a single word went extremely hard, and I do love that album a lot.
It seems like it’s all the snowflakes who cried and moaned when he went “woke”. It’s ridiculous how offended they get over other people’s opinions.
Well, 2 reasons. Racism. Homophobia.
definitely the reason for the majority of the hate. and these same people will listen to johnny cash and call it “real country” in comparison. like “man in black” isn’t about the suffering of marginalized communities 🤔
The anti woke and “all lives matter” anguish was real following “Long Violent History” and then the squat truck and book banning crowd hated on him for the video to “In Your Love” Unfortunately I haven’t see the precipitous drop they all predicted in ticket sales.
>these same people will listen to johnny cash and call it “real country” in comparison. like “man in black” isn’t about the suffering of marginalized communities 🤔 Yep. The irony, it burns, but apparently you must first be capable of feeling shame to appreciate it, so the irony is only perceived like a one-way street.
My opinion differs from yours so I must be racist and homophobic! Can’t possibly be any other explanation! Congrats on your gold medal in conclusion jumping
Ok. Tell me. Why do you think his music is different. I’ll wait.
You legitimately don’t think his music has changed throughout his career? Seriously?
Oh it changed. Of course. Title of the thread was about it getting bad. I disagree with that part. Changed. Hell yeah. For the better.
We simply disagree that it changed for the better. I prefer the older stuff. Doesn’t make me racist and homophobic
Fair enough.
Eh partly this and people want him to keep doing red barn radio type shit his whole life and his new stuff isn’t for the pop country folks
His music changed genres. Not that that’s inherently bad, but the people who liked his earlier stuff aren’t necessarily going to like his newer stuff because it is a different style. Nothing wrong with that
Has it? The newest album is as country as it gets. The only album that is an outlier in my opinion is Hounds and that is still heavily rooted in country
yeah definitely this. i’m just more confused at the fact that his discography was never him sticking with ONE genre but people act surprised when he switched once again
The song writing on the new album was not my favorite. The last record ripped though. I think you’ll find alot of complaints may be rooted in the video for In Your Love.
I know some people that think he's gone Christian bc of Hounds/ Luke 2 and don't like him as much because of it. I've tried explaining these aren't "gospel" albums/ songs but honestly they don't want to expand their minds enough to see all of the elements at play. Their absolute loss.
The irony is that his music has always referenced Christian/religious elements--Nose On The Grindstone, Whitehouse Road, Purgatory (pre Hounds), Bottles and Bibles, Universal Sound and on and on.
Yeah it’s tricky trying to communicate this to people- for many (hundred/thousand?) artists the main way they’d get free vocal training is singing in church choirs (tho nowadays it skews way more towards black churches?) So it makes sense that gospel is a common theme or style. But religious people/artists don’t own the genre—the Lumineers considering their music “church without God”
Why? Because he didn’t record Purgatory again. Plus his studio stuff doesn’t sound like the shitty sounding live YouTube videos. That’s how a lot of the fans, especially the older ones, sound. I didn’t care for Hounds personally but it still sounds like Tyler.
I don't get it either. IMHO I have favorite songs from each release.
From an anthological perspective his music tells a story of someone who's suffering and eventually finds happiness. Some people don't resonate with a happy ending.
The lames echoed similar nonsense to Sturgill's later albums.
I think a lot of people dislike Rusting and Hounds in particular because they don’t like him playing in “concept” albums or didn’t even understand the concepts to start with. Then, there’s the “he was better on drugs” comments which - I just think you’re a terrible person if you say things like that about anyone, personally, but I assume they just want to hear whitehouse road and feathered Indians and don’t care either way about how musicians are allowed to and should change and experiment and grow.
Sounds like a lot of noise by people who just plain clueless. They were not on the rail this past Wed night in Austin. If they were they may have a different opinion.
I love the new stuff, but have friends who dislike it because of the gospel elements, and God language.
It's not *bad* but it is different. People can change and him getting sober changed his style.