Disclaimer: before reading this review, I would recommend that anyone who has not heard this album go listen to Bo Burnham’s song “Pandering” to better understand it, as well as the sub-genre it has helped spawn.
People in the punk scene are not often known for their appreciation of genres that are heavily commercialized, such as pop, rap, or mainstream country, so I’d understand if many readers have never been exposed to this album before. Because “Is this punk?” is seemingly a never-ending debate for albums that get discussed among punk fans, I’ll go ahead and nip that in the bud with a resounding “Hell No”. The most punk thing about this album is the title, which reads like a much happier version of an emo-revival album title. No one will be deluded into thinking that sincerity and authenticity are major themes in the product being sold by Florida Georgia Line and their record label. In fact, many mainstream country musicians have derided Florida Georgia Line (and similar-minded bands) for their unabashed lowest-common-denominator approach to the genre.
However, Florida Georgia Line are undeniably important. In fact, even though “Here’s To The Good Times… This Is How We Roll” was released less than three and a half years ago, it has already spawned a sub-genre of country music commonly known as bro-country. Bro-country, like any subgenre, has a few specific focuses: hot girls (preferably wearing skin-tight jeans), trucks (preferably pickups with a lift kit), and drinking/partying (preferably branded alcohol, for the product placement). It is not well-thought-out, by any means, but it is incredibly successful within its target market: “Cruise” is the best-selling digital country single of all time (OF ALL TIME). This is because bro-country blends the already-radio-friendly gloss of modern country with Top 40 pop and white-boy rap. Florida Georgia Line were not the first country stars to feature rap or pop stars in their songs, but they have done so as emphatically as anyone in the genre. “Cruise”, perhaps their most famous song, is remixed with a feature from Nelly on the deluxe version of the album. Florida Georgia Line has gone on to feature the Backstreet Boys (yes, THOSE Backstreet Boys) on a song this year.
Musically, Florida Georgia Line kind of sounds like standard 21st-century country. It isn't anything terribly interesting, as you could basically just imagine a Keith Urban song with different lyrics. As for those lyrics? Well, drinking, girls, and trucks really does sum it up, and a track-by-track description of all 17 songs would be redundant to the point of irresponsibility on my part. Here are some quotes from the album’s major hits, though, just to get the point across:
“'Cause girl you got me like dayum baby, dayum baby, dayum / Yeah you got me like dayum baby, dayum baby, dayum” – “Dayum, Baby”. One of the album’s slower songs… You know, for the ladies.
“The truck's jacked up, flat bills flipped back / Yeah you can find us where the party's at” – “This Is How We Roll ft. Luke Bryan”. For those who don’t know, Luke Bryan is also a core member of the bro-country sub-genre.
“Kick back, relax and pass the good time moonshine / Who brought the party? Damn, that was Florida Georgia Line” – “It’z Just What We Do”. This is from a rap verse that can only be described as upsetting. Elsewhere on the album, they mention a mixtape that has “a little Hank, little Drake”, which sums up their influences quite succinctly.
“Silverado, candy painted / Ray Bans got the whole world shaded” – “Get Your Shine On”. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a band incorporate as much product placement into their music as FGL does on this album.
Perhaps the most gripping moments of this album come in the music videos for several of the songs… “Stay”, in particular, is a shining example of this. “Stay” was originally by a southern rock/post-grunge band called Black Stone Cherry, and a bro-country cover of a post-grunge ballad goes exactly as well as you’d think. It’s also the closest they come to showing emotion on this album (unless “PARTY” is an emotion), and it isn’t even their song. Florida Georgia Line’s video for this song is maybe my favorite moment related to this album, only because it focuses on a man who burns down his own trailer when his girlfriend leaves him and doesn’t answer his text messages for a few hours. Beyond this, the music videos that accompany these songs do an amazing job of looking exactly like the songs sound. The videos for “Cruise”, “Cruise- Remix”, and “It’z Just What We Do” all focus heavily on their Holy Trinity of trucks, partying, and girls. The “This Is How We Roll” video also emphasizes these themes while adding a cameo of Travis Pastrana partying inside a semi-trailer. Needless to say, the videos from this album can be converted into prime material for drinking games… Drink every time you see a bare midriff, drink every time a brand name is mentioned, etc.
While Florida Georgia Line are laughable from just about everyone’s perspective except that of their one core demographic (white southern frat boys, presumably), they’ve had more of an impact on country music than just about anyone else in this decade, so they deserve some credit for their success and influence. Hell, they’ve even been a much larger part of my life than I could ever have expected. I went to college in Texas, so I ended up hearing their music pretty much every single time I consumed alcohol in those four years… And I’ve even seen them live at the Houston Rodeo once (kind of by accident). Wait, shit, am I a Florida Georgia Line fan?! Well, no.