Single Review: Easton Corbin - 'All Over The Road'

The second single (and title track) from Easton Corbin’s second album is a likeable enough love song. The attractive melody, Carson Chamberlain’s production and Easton’s smooth vocal are all very pleasing, and those alone set it above the mass of songs out there.

But when you listen closely, the lyrics are frankly problematic. The single portrays a man pulled over for dangerous driving thanks to the proximity of his sweetheart. Taken metaphorically, the emotion is quite sweet; but one can hardly take it seriously read literally. The feeble defence of the protagonist that he “don’t want to cause no wreck” are unbelievable; the disclaimer that he isn’t actually drunk is disingenuous. The girl is supposedly all over him while he’s trying to drive, and they’ll be “all over the road” in a literal sense if they’re not careful. You can’t really dismiss this level of irresponsibility as just a fun song. It was written by producer Carson Chamberlain with Ashley Gorley and Wade Kirby.

It does gain points for the sound, which is a nice balance of radio-friendly polish with genuinely country instrumentation, the melody and vocal, but they aren’t enough to make up for the folly of the lyrics. If the track is relegated to background music it’s nice enough, but one of the strengths of country music is that it takes real life seriously. The lyrics of a song almost always matter.

This is one of the (too many) tracks Jonathan Pappalardo dismissed as “lightweight filler” in his review of the album, and it’s hard to disagree. As one of the few traditionally-disposed artists currently welcome on country radio airwaves, and offering some hope for the future of the genre, it’s a real shame Easton Corbin isn’t finding more interesting material. But perhaps that’s what it takes these days, when artists like George Strait and Alan Jackson, who are clearly inspirations to Easton, have seen songs with real substance cast aside by radio.

Grade: C+

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