In a time when record labels sign and drop artists after only one or two singles fail to climb the charts, Lyric Street Records has stuck with Sarah Buxton as they try to break her through at Country radio. After the debut single “Innocense” stalled at 31 in 2006, Lyric Street released the quirky and fun “That Kind of Day” in 2007 and saw the single hit 26. Lyric Street never released an album but they did release the EP (“Almost My Record”) and the EP featured the two singles and Sarah’s original version of “Stupid Boy,” a song that Keith Urban took into the Top 10 that same year. After taking most of 2008 off to record, Sarah returned with “Space,” a song I thought (read review here) was sure to impress radio with it’s simple and honest lyric. While the song again found Sarah in the Top 40, she still didn’t break the ‘glass ceiling’ that seemingly is there for all but the top three or four female artists.
Consider Sarah’s next single “Outside My Window” as the biggest shot at radio stardom yet. 80’s pop/rock-like guitars lead-off the song and after a few seconds Sarah immediately describes what she sees outside her window. It’s an interesting hook to get people immediately familiar with the song and it finds Sarah singing a Martina McBride-like optimistic ballad about all the things she sees and hears outside her window and she even knows that she is overly ‘hopeful’ and that may be childish but she doesn’t really care. It’s an interesting song in the sense that it’s only country because of the steel guitar added to the mix. The ‘la-la-la-la’s’ that are present through the very end of the song go on to cement Buxton’s ‘sunny side up’ optimism. If radio wants a hook-y, sing-a-long to play for women this summer, I’m sure that they’ve got a great contender in “Outside My Window.”
While I’m happy that Lyric Street and Sarah Buxton are continuing to find something that sticks at radio, I don’t know if I want this song to be the one to get fans interested in her music as Sarah Buxton is much better than “Outside My Window.” Still, if it gets her on the radio and to the upper part of the charts where she can join the handful of female chart-toppers, I’ll be happy.
0 Comments