Red Bow recording artist David Fanning has had a couple of stops and starts – just stops really – when it comes to launching himself at country radio. His debut single was 2014’s ‘Drink You Away’, a cover of the Justin Timberlake song which is now itself at country radio, but its heavier sound and a delivery that was lacking in personality led to it peaking at #58. The track wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best arrangement the song could have mustered and he got very lost in the crowd. Then came the frankly awful ‘Doin’ Country Right’ earlier this year; so bad even the bro-country defenders couldn’t bring themselves to attack the haterz on YouTube, and so bad that it only reached #60. The minimum it needed to chart at all.
‘What’s Next’, David’s new single, is also pretty appalling. I’m not sure if it’s as aurally offensive as its predecessor, but once again it’s such a mess that I can’t imagine anybody at country radio getting on board with it. Granted, that hasn’t stopped them before, but if Fanning had zero momentum prior to this then I don’t see ‘What’s Next’ changing too many minds. Essentially it sounds as if somebody threw the sounds and melodies of EDM/pop, a bro-country vocal and lyric, and a faux-arena rock structure all into a blender and then ran it for too long, eventually turning off the power to see what shitshow it had turned out. It’s honestly difficult to find a real instrument in this entire track (the electric guitar might be real?), as it’s all just synth, auto-tune and reverb mush, while David’s edited vocal draws out in labored utterings that pitch him as either stoned or rather ill. It’s uncomfortable to listen to even in a pop sense, the melody boring and repetitive and the chorus ripped from one thousand other rejects.
Narrative it has little, placing David in a bar trying to pick up a girl and take her somewhere else for the rest of the night. “Let me show you what’s next,” he whines on the ‘hook’. No David, I definitely do not want to know what’s next. I’d rather none of this ever happened, honestly.
‘What’s Next’ is boring, too slow, and yet is also attempting to do too many things sonically. David Fanning doesn’t sound like he should ever have made the move to vocalist (he has previously produced for Thompson Square and Parmalee), and even his ‘pretty boy’ appearance isn’t enough to make anything about this tolerable or compelling. I hope it dies on the charts and I hope he goes away as well.
Originally posted here.
