For as long as there has been music, there have been guys using music to get girls. Scratch that, even before there was music, there were poets wandering the countryside, armed with poetry, looking for fair maidens. Sometimes this plan worked--for example, Lord Byron, in his day, got all the girls. So did Hank Williams. However, after a couple millennia, women have grown rather jaded to the average love song. We want good, original images, occasionally littered with the cliches we like and devoid of all the cheesy lines we never want to hear again. The latest man to offer his love song to the hearts of fair maidens and honky tonk angels everywhere is Troy Olsen and the song is “Good Hands.” It is a fairly solid piece of romantic fluff, that skews more often towards what women want to hear than the lines we want to forget.
The song opens inauspiciously with the line “I know your eyes have cried too many tears and I know you've thought sometime you'd be better off alone, but I'm not those other guys.” For any future songwriters out there, don't remind us of the guys we used to date. That is a pretty surefire way to remind us of why we hate men. “Good Hands” continues by reminding us that he is someone who wants to be with us forever. The sentiment, and even the lines, might be a bit cliche, but it is one of those cliches that women want to hear every one in a while. Things pick up on the chorus where he invokes Willie's guitar and Geranimo's rifle and promises “I'll hold you steady as Billy Graham's Bible.” While the image of a rifle is a bit jarring in a love song, it is interesting and definitely defines the sort of woman he is hoping to find. The use of singular objects which are precious to their owners and have become a treasure for others as well is a very nice touch. The rest of the song continues with the string of less common cliches, but there are moments that are uncommon to the genre. Women raised in a slightly more feminist era will find is refreshing that he wants to help find the what takes your breath away, rather than being that himself. As well as the lyrics hold up, the rest of the song does itself no favors. Olsen's voice is nice enough, a pleasant mid-range baritone, reminiscent of Chris Young or Tim McGraw, and he sells the emotion with a slight wink. However, the instrumentation is a mish-mash of 80's rock tropes that have become staples of contemporary country, complete with a screaming hairband guitar solo. This is unfortunate because, with a defter hand constructing the song, this could have been something really special.
While there is never going to be a shortage of love songs, truly great ones are very rare. There is a tendency to fall into the lowest common denominator trap and serve up the same dish that everyone else has brought to the table. That being said, there are few really bad love songs as well. Most fall into the category of generic and forgettable. Whatever other flaws it might have, “Good Hands” is definitely memorable. While this won't be the song everyone dances to at their weddings, it is an interesting song that offers appealing and original images to back up the common emotions. If the music matched the lyrics this might be the best love song of the year, but as it stands, it will have to settle for being merely good.
Check out our interview with Troy by clicking here.
You can support Troy Olsen by purchasing his Digital EP at Amazon for only $3.49!
0 Comments