Sugarland – “Joey”

Songwriters: Jennifer Nettles, Kristian Bush & Bill Anderson.

Following the lighthearted carpe diem of “It Happens,” Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush take on a dark tone with their Bill Anderson co-write “Joey,” the tale of a regretful and guilt-ridden lover left behind after a tragic death.

Despite Anderson’s impeccable songwriting track record and Sugarland’s exceptional understanding of effective contemporary hit-song construction, “Joey” is a thematically schizophrenic lyric that suffers from a debilitating lack of focus.

From the narrator’s torment at the thought that she could have kept Joey alive to her wondering if she would feel so devastated had they “gone slow” or “never [fallen] in love,” there’s so much emotional turmoil embedded in the story that it becomes difficult to empathize with any particular strand of feelings.

We’re given a glimpse into a tortured heart, but there are so many correlating (and sometimes conflicting) emotional questions and responses that we never feel the full weight of the narrator’s loss.

It is not, after all, the fact that Joey is dead that would bring us to tears, but rather the thought of a devastated partner who must now go on without him. And although hypothetical questions about “what if we never…” are probably true representations of the mindset of a person who has experienced this extreme hardship, they don’t add together to form a piece of music that really grabs us by the heart and bonds us to the story.

This lack of emotional commitment also manifests itself in the way the Nettles relates (or doesn’t) to the material. Although she serves up a typically stellar technical performance, it is one that lacks the rawness that usually accompanies her soul-bearing songs. Whereas we are used to hearing her sing about her simple truths and difficult admissions, here we are fully aware that this is a story she hasn’t lived.

She never effectively sells us otherwise, and so there remains a great distance between singer and narrator–one which leaves the entire effort sounding like a forced attempt, not insincere but greatly misguided.

Listen: Sugarland – “Joey”