Church does his best to create a Springsteen-esque character study with “Homeboy,” a song about a young man that abandons his country cultural roots for the hip-hop lifestyle. Yet the picture Church paints of the innate Southern spirit, the one this young man was born into, is by no means morally superior to the behaviors of those tough guys hanging out on the corner downing 40 oz. malt liquors. He tells this juvenile upstart that he’ll one day long to be with his “high school flame on one side/Ice cold beer on the other.” If your ultimate goal in life is to relax with a hot woman and some suds, does your clothing style and, perhaps, style of music really matter all that much? It reads more like simple prejudice against African-American culture.
Make no mistake about it; Church dearly loves his alcohol. “Drink in My Hand,” praises the supposed confidence boosting power of booze, while “Jack Daniels” frames whiskey as though it were a superhero. “Hungover & Hard Up” complains about the morning after a party, whereas “I’m Getting’ Stoned” turns to the bottle after a girl leaves him for a rock & roller.
Jesus also gets a few notable mentions during Chief. There’s “Like Jesus Does,” which stands amazed at a God-loving girl who will not give up on Church's wayward bad boy, in the same way Jesus will never leave. “Country Music Jesus” longs for a country music messiah, however, “some longhaired hippie prophet preaching from the book of Johnny Cash.” The song begins as a banjo-colored ballad, and then transforms into a Jason Aldean rocker before building into a black gospel rave-up, complete with Sunday morning gospel choir. Despite all its inspirational fervor, though, the tune never actually sounds like a country song.
Church has a distinctive voice, with more lyrical ambition than most. Nevertheless, Chief never lives up to any Springsteen-like ‘working man’s poet’ promise. Springsteen has a special ability to step outside himself and inhabit characters. Some of these lyrical studies, such as the hard luck guys that people Nebraska, are scary folks you only want to keep at album-song distance. On the other hand, the most of the subjects in Church’s songs come off a whole lot like Church. These are hard-drinking bad boys, with – mostly – hearts of gold.
With the exception of “Homeboy,” which takes a good, but not great shot at getting outside of Church’s predictable psyche, Chief is mostly a simplistic portrayal of Church, or Church-like individuals. Church should use “Homeboy” as his template and next time attempt to get inside the heads of song characters that are different from him. “Homeboy,” in fact, would have been a whole lot better if Church had tried at least a little to comprehend what might have made its main character escape his roots. Hey, small towns aren’t for everybody. Just because your cousins, father and uncles all enjoy the farmer’s life, doesn’t guarantee that that life is for you, too. Furthermore, why is Church more than okay with cranking up rock & roll electric guitars in his music, yet too ethnocentric to give hip-hop music a little lyrical respect during “Homeboy”? It makes you wonder.
Chief is good, but we all know Eric Church has the ability to do so much better.
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Watch: "Homeboy" Music Video
Listen: "Homeboy"
Read: "Homeboy" Single Review
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