Ah, 2008. What an absolutely fabulous year for music. There was a mix of silly club jams and more serious songs in terms of rap, pop was a mix of ballads, dance songs, and even some that are a mix of the two, the R&B was becoming a lot more sleeker, sexier, and smoother, and rock, ignoring the completely sludgy embarrassment that was Addicted by Saving Abel, was surprisingly eclectic and full of substance (granted, a lot of it was leftover from 2007, but even still). And while others will point to songs like Viva La Vida, So What, and Superstar for their favorite hit of '08, I'm pointing to a song from the one genre that took up only 1/20th of the year-end chart (1/25th if you don't count All Summer Long by Kid Rock like I do), that being country music. Seriously, looking through the year-end chart for 2008, country music seemed so sparse that year. I mean, I liked all of the songs from that genre that made it (yes, even All Summer Long, and yes, I am counting that as country), don't get me wrong, but seriously, three of them are Taylor Swift songs, and I'm pretty sure damn near everyone else, regardless of whether or not they consider it country, hates All Summer Long. Thankfully, we have a saving grace amongst them, the one I consider the absolute best, and it's made even more surprising from the fact that it's coming from such a hack as Trace freaking Adkins, of all people.
Yeah, not gonna lie, taking off the rose-tinted glasses, the vast majority of this guy's output flat out sucks. Most people only know him for the notoriously awful Honky Tonk Badonkadonk, and believe me, while that song does blow, it is *far* from the worst thing Adkins has ever released as he doesn't exactly have a very good track record. I mean, sure, he has a good song in him every now and then (I still think Hot Mama is ridiculously enjoyable in a screwball sort of way, plus there's the song we're gonna be talking about in a second), but even ignoring ol' Country Bar Butt Shaking, this guy's output sucks and in a variety of ways. From insufferable arrogance (Ladies Love Country Boys, Songs About Me, Rough & Ready) to bland, sappy, lifelessness (There's A Girl In Texas, Every Light In The House), as well as the obvious just being plain unfunny and utterly cringe-inducing (Swing, Chrome, the aforementioned Honky Tonk Badonkadonk, the first two actually being a lot worse than the last one, if you can believe it). That said, if there is one thing he is able to pull off and pull off well at that, it's sentimentality. He has the vocal range, expressiveness, and even the writing chops to make songs like I'm Tryin', Then They Do, Arlington, Just Fishin', and of course, the song on the table today, You're Gonna Miss This, work, and while out of what I just listed, I'd have to go with Arlington as my favorite of the bunch, this isn't very far behind, honestly.
For starters, the instrumentation is superb. It's incredibly spacious, melodic, and able to carry the feel through its lush guitars that gain a lot of power in the two choruses that aren't the beginning one, yet it somehow manages to avoid the trap of feeling too syrupy or like it's trying too hard to be emotional. It feels natural and organic, which is always a huge plus. On top of that, the loud/soft dynamic is being used perfectly here. This is the type of song that that would be perfect for, and it certainly isn't wasted here. It's all it needs to be: soft verses, buildup, strong chorus. It doesn't try for anything more, and honestly, it doesn't really need to. Well, except for the third verse, that is, which is actually my favorite part, musically. I especially love how percussive the song gets during that part without losing its melodic foundation, makes the first part quiet and soft, and then returns to the big, sweeping feel that it originally had. It's a pretty minor change in the grand scheme of things, but damn does it work well.
Then we have Adkins himself, and I gotta say, he really should use his deeper, more bassy voice for more of this stuff. Normally when he uses it, he's trying to sound cool and awesome, but more often than not, it makes him sound like a complete tool. He really is someone who's meant more to emote, and the lower range he's constantly working in is definitely best suited. If anything, he sounds more like a parent most concerned with the safety and well-being of their kid(s), and while that may sound bad on the surface, it actually works really well in this circumstance.
Of course, the big reason the whole concerned parent motif works so well on this song is because of what we now come to, the aspect of the song that really makes me fall in love with it, the lyrics. They tell this story of a girl who is thinking about her future perhaps a little too much as in one instance, she's in the car in front of the high school with her mom, musing about how she can't wait to be out of school and out of the house. The next, she's a newlywed getting her one-bedroom apartment, and when her dad stops by to help her get it ready to live in, she says that while it'll do for now, she one day hopes to upgrade to a house and have some kids. In the last moment of the story, it's half a decade later, and everything in her house is pure chaos from the phone ringing off the hook to the dog barking his head off to having to deal with two loud, crying kids (one crying a lot louder than the other, apparently). She keeps profusely apologizing to the plumber that's there working on the water heater, but he says he doesn't mind as he has "two babies of his own," as Trace has the plumber in that scene put it, who are ages 36 and 23 respectively. All three of these scenes are wrapped up with a chorus reminding her that while things may not seem as good as they could right now, she must cherish the moments she has right now as she may not be able to recapture them and may even want them back despite wanting out of the current situation she's in. It's very much a song about living in the moment, and honestly, you have no idea how well this works, or at least in my opinion. The framing of the song doesn't place anyone in a superior or inferior position, and the reminders to the young girl from her mom saying she was just like her at one point, to her dad, in a really loving manner, tells her "baby, just slow down," to the plumber bringing up his kids, it really is a song about embracing one's youth and just how much we take it for granted. I'm sure we all have had moments when we were younger where we longed to just be away from our parents (granted, this is coming from someone who still lives with his parents, so take that with a pinch of salt) and just be free of responsibilities, only to be slapped hard in the face by the reality that is college and the workforce and various other things that not only aren't free of responsibilities at all, but have a completely different set of responsibilities that we're not nearly as used to and could be even more difficult to keep up with, thus causing us to long for the days when we were still in high school, and all we had to worry about was how much homework we'd have that night and what we were gonna wear to school the next day. It isn't a song that holds the listener's hand, yet at the same time, it's not one that slaps them across the face and says "shut up, you don't have it that hard, now just do as you're told." It's the perfect middle ground, and I think that's why I love it so much.
Well, there you have it. You're Gonna Miss This by Trace Adkins: my favorite hit song of 2008. A beautiful country song with a magnificent message from an otherwise completely useless singer. Hope you guys enjoyed reading, and I'll see you guys next time.
2008 feels man.
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