Song Review: Musta Had a Good Time by Parmalee

The opening line: the single most important line of a song. Why? Because it sets the mood and feeling of the song. That first line should be so strong that it grabs the listener and gets them invested in the song. It can make the difference between actively listening or not. Every great song that's been written has had a great opening line. 

Some examples:

"He said 'I'll love you 'til I die"

"She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette"

"A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher"

"It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty, Delta day"

"Hello darlin', nice to see you, it's been a long time"

"Cowboys ain't easy to love and they're harder to hold"

"Sara Beth is scared to death to hear what the doctor will say"

"It was all I could to keep from crying"

I could keep going, but I think you get the point. So let's look at the opening line to this particular song.

"Hey y'all, is that my dog up on the roof?"

Now granted, it may not be as poetic as a couple of the other lines I quoted, but that's okay. The point is that it gets your attention. Because odds are, you hear or see that line and want to find out where things are going. And if you're anything like me, you find yourself wondering if this is actually a thing. Like if anyone has ever asked this question, in total seriousness. For the sake of dogs everywhere, I'm hoping not. 

Remember what I said about the opening line setting the mood for the song? This is a very good example of a line doing just that. What we have here, ladies and gentleman, is a hangover song where our lead singer is trying to figure out what went on the night before. The details might be fuzzy, but the consensus is that they must have had a good time. Odds are that a lot of people are going to listen to this and relate, having had a similar experience one or more times themselves. 

Parmalee recently released the video for this song it's exactly what I was hoping it'd be. It was directed by Wes Edwards, who I love for two main reasons. One, he's great at picking the right treatment for the song in question. And two, his videos are always filmed in whatever style is best for the artist. As a result, his videos are among my favorites. The video for the song could not be more perfect. 

I'm going to go a little more into the song after the cut, but for those of you who maybe aren't all that familiar with Parmalee, I strongly suggest that you go watch this video. I wish more new artists made videos like this; it's a great way to let people know what you're about and where you come from. So go check it out. 

Going a bit deeper...

"Musta Had a Good Time" was written by the guys of Parmalee, along with David Fanning. For all the many drinking songs out there, it seems like very few people write songs about the next day. Off the top of my head the only other song in this vein that comes to mind is "All My Friends Say" by Luke Bryan. I'm sure there's others out there, but most people tend to focus on the partying itself.

What I like about the song is how crazy some of the lines are. If you're conclusion is that you must have had a good time, than the evidence from the night before needs to be pretty out there. In this case we start off with someone asking if their dog is on the roof and that is immediately followed with "And good God, is that my car out in the pool?". And a little bit later on we get this, "There's a flood in the bathroom/ A hog in the kitchen, a dude on my couch with a bloody nose". So yeah, something tells me a lot of people are going to relate to this. Those who have never been to a party like this one might find themselves hoping that they do at some point. Or at least should find it entertaining. My feeling is that the Parmalee boys and David Fanning did exactly what they set out to do when they wrote this.

"Musta Had a Good Time" has a nice groove and energy to it. Good production too. The music has some grit in it and I'm happy that they did it like that. A song like this needs some of that, it can't be too polished because that would ruin it. I really don't have anything else to say about the music, other than that everything fits. So no complaints.

Vocally speaking, again, I have no complaints. I like lead singer Matt's voice quite a bit and he gives a good delivery here. Solid background vocals as well. This one might be a little polarizing - the more traditional country fans maybe won't care for it. But given the massive popularity of guys like Jason Aldean and Eric Church, my feeling is that a lot of people will.  I'd say that both Jason and Eric paved the way for acts like Parmalee to come along and have a solid shot. They all have their distinct sounds to them that set them apart, but I'd consider all these acts to be in the same vein. So fans of Jason and/or Eric will probably like Parmalee.

Fun song. It's going to be interesting watching what this one does. I hope that this song does well for them; there's something so likeable about this group of guys and I'd really like to see them get a lot more popular. Hopefully all of you went and checked out the video I linked to earlier to get a better idea of what they're about. For those of you who haven't, I urge you to do so after reading this.

Parmalee: a band made up of four guys, two of them brothers. One of them a cousin to the brothers and the other a good friend. Their names: Matt Thomas (lead vocals, guitar), Josh McSwain (guitar, vocals), Barry Knox (bass, vocals) and Scott Thomas (drums). These guys are going to be fun to watch.

Thanks for reading!