CD Review: Chris Janson – Waitin’ On 5 – by Jeffrey Kurtis for Country Music News International Magazine & Radio Show
Warner Music Nashville
Since first bursting onto the mainstream
country music scene with “Buy Me A Boat,” Chris Janson has mostly stayed in two
lanes with which songs are released as his singles. In one lane, you get the
sentimental husband/family man on “Holdin’ Her” and “Done,” and in the other
lane you get the leader of the party with songs such as “Fix A Drink” and
“Power of Positive Drinkin’.”
Janson’s forthcoming single “Waitin’ On
5,” the follow-up to his latest #1 song “Done,” absolutely lands in the leader
of the party lane and gives us a new Friday night anthem to carry us into a
feel-good weekend.
Aimed at the 9 to 5er, Janson kicks into
the song with a focus on the blue-collar types with the opening lines,
“Underneath a car, turning on a wrench. Out there on a farm fixing that fence.”
From here, though the lyric cleverly turns so as to connect with anybody as he
vaguely references any employment field with the line “out in the sun or in the
AC,” giving you as the listener the chance to bring your personal story to this
song.
Of course, as you may have guessed based
on the title, this isn’t a song about being at work but what you do when that
bell rings to end the day – get your drink on in this case! “Waitin’ on 5 to
start on 6,” “we’ll be cracking and popping and giving a twist,” “we’re gonna
have a little party tonight,” etc.
Janson masterfully taps into how we all
feel every week with lines such as, “Sunday night comes and I’m getting depressed.
Monday morning blues and my head is a mess” and “I’d rather dig in a cooler,
man, than dig in a ditch. I’m sick and damn tired of being somebody’s bitch.”
Musically, this is an easy to relate to
lyric that’s surrounded with the signature catchiness that Janson always
delivers on his tempo driven songs of this nature. There’s an instant vibe that
makes you want to be out on a boat under the sun or standing in the middle of a
crowd in front of the stage with your drink in the air as you’re bopping along.
The chorus is clearly designed to
instantly get stuck in your head as Janson sings “hey…hey…alright” and gives us
an audience participation moment where you can vividly picture a crowd screaming
along with him.
Country music has certainly had its fair
share of party songs over the past few years, so what will make this one stick
and not get lost in the shuffle?
For one, Janson is coming off a #1 charting
song, so radio is going to be excited to play his new single for its listening
audience. However, more importantly, Janson is (and always has been) an artist
for the working class as he’s lived the pounding the pavement story. This factor
adds believability to his songs with a focus of this nature, and therefore
gives him the honesty that any artist needs to reach through the speakers and
connect one-on-one with the listener.
Listen to “Waitin’ On 5” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qVrUNxnpPg