Okay, I'll admit it right away. I am not a big fan of Kellie Pickler. I can't deny that she is a decent singer and is easy on the eyes, but beyond that, I generally don't see what's the fuss about her — besides the excellent "I Wonder," I haven't seen much in her that really grabbed my attention. I still think that she's overrated, but her new single, "Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You," offers a little more than the "dumb blonde" persona that she has beaten into the ground.
To tell the truth, "Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You" is not a great song. The production is fairly generic (one of Blake Chancey's trademarks – for someone with "chance" in his name, he sure doesn't take many), complete with a drum loop and screaming guitar solo. For the umpteenth time in a row. The lyrics are rather pedestrian in the verses — she can't get him out of her head, her world's been ripped apart, she thought she was all he'd ever need, and she's wondering if he knows that yes, she still loved him anyway, but now he's gone. Nothing special there.
Perhaps the best part of this song is Pickler's vocal performance. She's always had a fairly distinctive twang to her voice that sometimes comes off as lively, but other times comes off as labored. Here, she sounds truly alive, conveying the right amount of emotion needed to elevate the song. The delivery is especially effective in the chorus, where she goes full-throttle into the title, grabbing the listener's attention with the simple yet effective hook.
"Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You" is certainly not without its flaws. Indeed, I have yet to find an Aimee Mayo co-write that I could describe in terms other than "cliché." But with a good enough vocal performance, even a trite lyric can be elevated greatly, and that's just what Kellie has here — a performance that shows there's more to Kellie than she's been letting us know about before. Now if only she would give us more of this, instead of just playing the role of the ditz.
0 Comments