Chris Cagle - “No Love Songs”

Ben Cisneros | April 25th, 2008 Email Share

Chris Cagle Songwriters: George Teren and Craig Wiseman

You know that song by BJ Thomas “Another somebody done somebody wrong song?” Despite it being kind of cheesy and heavy-handed, I love that song. Chris Cagle’s new tune, “No Love Songs”–not so much.

The song kicks off with silly production featuring shakers and zany “ooooh” chants but I was willing to forgive it its lack of seriousness. In fact, I was completely willing to accept it as a summertime, beachball, vaguely mindless anthem. “Ok,” I thought, “so long as it doesn’t overreach and under deliver lyrically, I’ll consider it merely a necessary evil in this day and age of mass-market radio and stadium concert tours.” Unfortunately Chris Cagle had other plans for me.

I don’t think that all songs need to be sad. I really, truly don’t. But you know which songs I think need to be sad? SAD SONGS!

Writers Teren and Wiseman managed to craft a “sad” song without even the slightest hint of tragedy, shame, regret, misery, or existential angst. In fact, the melody on the hook line seems to be constructed specifically to make this one more “fun.” Furthermore, for a song that features a conversation between two people–Cagle is actually one of them, the sad guy recognizes him as “that fella on the TV with the cowboy hat, always playing the guitar”–there is nothing of emotional significance expressed between them; the “sad man” serves as more of a narrative convenience than an actual human being, and Cagle seems like he couldn’t care less about the guy’s problems.

What is Cagle’s response to “sad man’s” problems? “Hey man, listen, check this out, it’s gonna be OK. Alright? I know it hurt, believe me, I know, listen, dude, there’s a lot of fish in the sea.

Thanks Chris, we can tell how deeply you empathize.

At the end of the song the “sad man” walks away while Chris “the worst guy to be sad around” Cagle is in mid-sentence. That bears repeating. The songwriters had their character leave their song out of disinterest.

What does that tell you?

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Chris Cagle - “No Love Songs”

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  1. […] get to hear the song, go to the review The 9513 did of the […]

  1. Mike W.
    April 25, 2008 at 11:36 am Permalink

    You know, when Chris Cagle was actually recording songs he wrote, they were decent. Ok, sure, he had some clunkers, but “Miss Me Baby” wasnt bad at all. This….oy, this is just bad. Of course, Craig Wiseman is involved so it was either gonna be really sappy or really over the top silly.

  2. Leeann
    April 25, 2008 at 12:06 pm Permalink

    Interestingly, I thought Chris was better at writing his own songs too. I think Scott Hendricks might have been a bit of a jerk to convince him that he wasn’t a decent songwriter. I’ve never been a real fan of Cagle, but he did have a few that I enjoyed. I don’t expect artists to write all of their songs, but I hate to see one who does have some talent being convinced otherwise.

  3. Lucas
    April 25, 2008 at 2:15 pm Permalink

    That song’s just boring.

  4. Paula
    April 25, 2008 at 7:23 pm Permalink

    I dont think there’s anything wrong with the song itself. I had a hard time hearing the lyrics because of the production of the song (or maybe it’s just the way it sounded on this link, I havent heard it on cd). I could tell right off this was a Craig song, mostly because it seemed like Chris was trying to hard to sound like Craig. I know a lot of artists do try to copy the demo from the writer and in some cases it works because it also copies the true emotion of the song. In this case though it was the wrong decision because although Craig’s a pretty dang good songwriter, he cant sing worth a toot! I think if Chris had taken this song and sung it with the attitude that he did with “What Kind Of Gone” it would’ve been a lot better. I like the song, I just dont like this particular presentation of it. (PS - George Teren is a good songwriter too.)

  5. Andrew
    May 13, 2008 at 6:31 pm Permalink

    No matter how you feel about the narrative type of song you have to admit that the chorus is extremely catchy and addictive. I’ve seen him sing this song live and it’s a highlight of show. Cagle’s songwriting is always incredibly sincere but he still knows how to pick ‘em. There are a few better choices for singles on his new album though.

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