#419: Eric Church, ‘Chief’
EMI NASHVILLE, 2011
I turned this baby on today excited to listen to some real good fun time country music. Some crispy cool country music.
This was not that. This was corny and kinda creepy country music.
I cannot get behind anyone singing/impersonating the sounds of a banjo with needless “byowng” sounds as an intro. Which is exactly what Eric Church wanted me to sign up for in the first track of the album, “Creepin’”. I mean, the whole vibe is creepy and makes me feel…ick.
The song also immediately brings me back to SNL’s “The Creep” sketch which will forever be a deeply important part of my personal culture:
The similarity in these two different pieces of the media (Creepin’ vs. The Creep) contributed to some very specific and negative undertones during the listening of this album.
Okay, so then we move forward into a never ending stream of songs about drinking and being a real *bad boy*. The song, “Like Jesus Does” brings back that trope of the virginal girlfriend loving the bad boy. She loves like Jesus and that’s why he loves her even though he is an awful partner to her. It is a little thing we like to call benevolent sexism - objectifying the woman as a single dimensional “perfect” character. Once she falls though, she is a slut. There is no humanity within her experience. Her role is to be a foil to the man’s multidimensional and also problematic behavior.
It’s just lazy.
Moving forward – more drinking songs and wow, the “Homeboy” song. WHAT! Oh man. What a tune in the year of our lord, 2024. A song about how a kid who listens to hip hop and sags his pants means that he is clearly anti-family and hates his parents. The song reaches its peak when Eric tells said homeboy that someday that kid will get his priorities straight aka that he will love farming.
“Country Music Jesus”. I just cannot. A country music Jesus to come and save us all. I don’t even know what is happening here. I just know that I am a big fan of Jesus but if Jesus is going to show up doing Americanah, firework show and playing the guitar.
All of these are songs that continue to the offensive caricature of rural America being close minded and ignorant.
This is not a slam against country music, no. I love country music. I grew up on Bluegrass and all that implies. This is a slam against lazy and one-dimensional writing that leans into white supremacy and calls it wholesome American culture.
In my experience, small town America is more than just alcoholism and misogyny. Every small town I have been to is nuanced, full of rich stories of strong men AND women trying their best to survive the financial turmoil and technology that often neglects rural economies. There are digressive aspects of every society and community but those things should not be the standard of what makes a town fun. This album glorifies a lot of toxic behavior. I want a country album that is honest about It can be about loss, heartbreak, winning and living in a world that continues to change. I want an album that celebrates a community’s resilience.
Yes, music about weakness and destructive behavior can be very authentic and cathartic. But ‘Chief’ doesn’t feel like that. This album feels like a bad first date where the person I am talking to hasn’t developed a personality outside of drinking and genuinely believes that I will be impressed by how often he blacks out.
Transitioning from Earth, Wind and Fire to this was very disconcerting. Earth, Wind and Fire’s ‘That’s the way of the world’ was chock full of unique songs and melodies with different motivations. This album was sadly full of melodies that were not interesting enough to distract me from the lazy lyrics.
Sorry, Eric. But this is a straight up pass for me. Let’s allow country music to be about real people who do indeed contain multitudes.
Top songs: ‘Hungover & Hard Up’ was cute.