Comments on: Album Review: Ashley Monroe — Like a Rose

By: BRUCE

BRUCE — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:45:04 +0000

No. Right here is fine. I didn’t know we all had to be English majors to post our comments. Regardless, my post has merit. At least for me.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 01 May 2013 07:38:00 +0000

The amount of imagination required to read “made me want to rip my ears off” as nothing more than “I’m disappointed” is approximately equal to that required to read “really loving an artist means one has to automatically love all their work” into my post, which – of course – said nothing of the sort. Seems like that degree of inventiveness could be put to better use elsewhere.

By: BRUCE

BRUCE — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:00:20 +0000

You can certainly “really love” an artist and yet be disappointed with a particular body of their work. I see no double-speak in that. Really loving an artist does not mean one has to automatically love all their work.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:34:21 +0000

Sorry, Leeann, I’ll try to be a little clearer: claiming that one “really loves” an artist while dishing out terms like “weak” and “sloppy” and talking about how her music makes one want to rip one’s ears out suggests that the claimant practices a pretty toxic kind of love. I’ll bet that Miss Monroe didn’t feel much love at all in that post.

By: bob

bob — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:58:50 +0000

I bought this album on i-Tunes and I’m not embarrassed to admit that the songs I’ve played the most are “Weed Instead of Roses” and “You Ain’t Dolly”. They sound great. They’re fun songs.

Re the latter song, I do have a weakness for duets, either the kind in which the artists alternate verses or this one where they trade lines back and forth.

I’ve been reading some of the other album reviews and at least one reviewer had a positive comment. OH at MKOC called the Dolly song “a wittily tongue-in-cheek duet with Blake Shelton with an ultra-traditional feel musically. It’s the best thing Blake has done in years …” I can agree with that last line rather than the reviewer who called Blake “woefully overmatched”.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:34:29 +0000

I disagree with Jim on this, for the most part (though I think the Shelton duet falls short of the Yoakum duet from the first album), but I definitely don’t get your jab, Jon.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:42:01 +0000

“I really love Ashley…”

That’s a Ted Bundy kind of love, ain’t it?

By: Jim Malec

Jim Malec — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:22:40 +0000

I don’t understand this album. How is this anything other than a weaker and sloppier version of Satisfied? And I have to be honest, “You Ain’t Porter” made me want to rip my own ears off. Who on earth convinced these two very talented artists–at least one of which has a reputation for excellent judgment in song selection–to record that?

I really love Ashley, and wish her the best of luck with this record. I hope it’s what she wanted to record and release. That said, I personally think it falls short of Satisfied in every conceivable way.

And since I’m sure at least one person who comments here regularly (Hello, old friend!) is going to question why I’m raising these points now: I just happened to catch Ashley on A Prairie Home Companion this weekend ;-)

By: Ben Foster

Ben Foster — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:18:13 +0000

I would be very surprised if radio gave this album any attention, but since the Pistol Annies project seems to have raised Monroe’s profile a bit, I think the album stands a decent chance of succeeding without radio support. Radio has already bitten on Kacey Musgraves (for now, at least), and I doubt that the club will admit two intelligent female singer-songwriters at one time.

Very fine review, Karlie. As good as the songs are, it’s still Monroe’s voice that really sells them for me. Her voice does have a very distinct “teardrop” quality to it. I also loved the wordplay on “She’s Driving Me Out of Your Mind,” and while I thought “You Ain’t Dolly (and You Ain’t Porter)” was cute, it does seem to pale somewhat in comparison to the rest of the album.

By: Scooter

Scooter — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 06:01:53 +0000

I liked “satisfied” and this album. I think she has enormous talent as a writer but I also have trouble seeing how country radio will latch on to this album.