Flubbed Songwriting Dooms Hooks on Luke Bryan's 'Crash My Party' [REVIEW]

Luke Bryan acknowledges his appreciation for hip-hop early on in "Crash My Party." The country star describes his perfect mixtape during "That's My Kind of Night" as a "little Conway, a little T-Pain." Bryan shares some hobbies with T-Pain, a fellow Georgian. Both performers spend much of their time chasing the cutest girl around, rural in Bryan's case and urban in T-Pain's. Bryan needs more help from the hip-hop department, and not in terms of content, to help "Crash My Party" succeed however. Bryan needs some flow. 

Popular country music, like the kind that won Bryan nine American Country Music Awards in 2012, requires hooks that listeners can't forget, ones that invite singing along. The verses on "Crash My Party" explore the country standards of pretty girls, raising hell and working the farm, with some hitting and some missing. A good refrain can negate the preceding faux pas however. Bryan thrived on the big hook approach during his previous work, but awkward songwriting leaves fanfare to be desired throughout "Crash." 

The refrain for "Roller Coaster" builds up through ten bars, rising like the theme park ride its title suggests. But instead of a thrilling conclusion to the chorus, listeners get "now she's got me twisted/like an old beach roller coaster;" a mouthful of misplaced syllables that derails the flow Bryan carried up to that point. The rhyme scheme for "Drink A Beer" sounds like Legos in its squareness. Bryan rolls during "Out Like That," but he lapses into the catchline "I wanna feel your heart go tick-tock/while the rain from your hair drip-drops," an amateur-hour rhyme rivaling Robin Thicke's "what rhymes with hug me?" for lyrical laziness. 

"I See You" provides some saving grace, as Bryan laments a lost love haunting his dreams. The key aspect separating "I See You" from the other dozen tracks: Bryan wrote it. "Crash My Party" marks the least input Bryan has had on an album, and "I See You" indicates a correlation between his withdrawal and the weakness in material. Bryan is credited for eight tracks on 2011's "Tailgates & Tanlines," and it doesn't surprise that the single from that album, "Country Girl (Shake It For Me," can carry a dance floor. Even if you don't care for the subject matter's tropes, the hook rolls off the tongue. 

The album credits don't tell the whole story, of course. Bryan could have made suggestions; after all, it is his party. For the future, injecting some true first-person experience into the songbook could have significant impact.