REVIEW: Corey Stapleton — Western Son (SINGLE)
Introducing himself against a canvas of piano keys alone, Corey Stapleton’s opening bars in the debut single “Western Son” are bright and filled with warmth, but they’re only presenting us with a small fraction of the magic that’s in store for all who listen to this exciting new song. With his band The Pretty Pirates, Stapleton will show us just exactly what it means to be a dedicated country singer/songwriter in the post-millennium age here, and while he’s got a couple of rough edges in his performance, they’re the sort of rough edges that inspire and relate to us through authenticity rather than amateurishness. This is a potent rookie release and a country song that I recommend all fans of the genre take some time with right now.
“Western son and the song of the south / Lookin’ for love, tryin’ to figure it out / A small-town boy in a big town world / Lookin’ for you as my girl,” sings Stapleton in the first few lines of this single, his voice leaning on the keys ever so softly. His references to classic country lyrics aside, this is an intimate expression of self that starts everything on an exposed note before allowing for the majesty of The Pretty Pirates’ play to take over our focus. There’s not a lot of pressure in this master mix, but let’s face it — there doesn’t really need to be. Our singer can manage fine in this setting, which makes me curious to hear him perform live in the future.
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Production quality is something I always care about from a critical point of view, and luckily for me, Corey Stapleton isn’t sporting the same kind of DIY rookie attitude behind the board that some of the other young country players I encounter happen to. His is an approach that has more to do with breaking down the details than it does chasing the simple decadences of a pop-country sound, and when juxtaposed beside his performance ethic, you can really appreciate how much duality he has as an artist and a conceptualizer. This isn’t as easy as he’s making it sound, but then again, it certainly appears to be less than hard for someone of his talent caliber to make something as solid as “Western Son.”
You’ll be hard-pressed to find another country artist with nothing in his discography better than this guy is right now, but I still think that there’s a likely chance Stapleton is only scratching the surface of his capabilities with what he’s doing here. He’s got a skillset that doesn’t need much help developing, but with the assistance of his band in The Pretty Pirates, I think we’re going to see exponential growth from him as a songwriter over the course of his next couple of singles. “Western Son” is an amazing start to his campaign, and perhaps the right song to bring the autumn season to a close with in 2021 given its emotional subtext and retrospective lyrical wit.
Colin Jordan
