For 21 weeks, “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley has been at the top of the Billboard charts but it shouldn’t have even been there for one week.

Langley is an industry plant if I’ve ever seen one. All of her songs sound the exact same: monotone with lyrics you can’t even understand. She came out of nowhere with this “Choosin’ Texas” song and has been number one, somehow, for almost a year. 

Her music is just boring to listen to and it makes zero sense how she had a sold-out show in Little Rock with Drake in attendance. Country music is able to be fun and different. Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, Rascal Flatts, Zac Brown and more have all proved that.

The only good country music Langley has put out has been in collaboration with other, established, country singers. “You look like you love me” is the only good, real, country song Langley has done and that’s in collaboration with Riley Green, one of the few real country singers of this generation left. 

Her singing is still super monotone in that song with Green, like every song of hers, and the instrumentals in the background carry the country-ness of the song.

I can’t just bash on Langley, though. I’ll give her credit where credit is due. 

I do enjoy the “storytelling,” if you can even call it that, in “Choosin’ Texas.” By that I mean it’s interesting how she uses Texas and Tennessee as a placeholder, or allusion, to people. But the references to those specific states were surface-level at that. Cowboys, Lone Star State, I-40 and Memphis Blues just give the vibe that she looked up the states and picked the first things that popped up. Especially when I-40 stretches through eight states for 2,556 miles.

If it was her debut album, I’d give her props, but it’s not. This would be her fourth album. It feels unfinished and unworthy of a sold-out tour. 

I have the same gripes about Morgan Wallen that I do about Langley. “Last Night” is his “Choosin’ Texas,” but at least his songs give a country vibe. The lyrics and feel just suck in general. Just like he does. 

We need to bring back old country music because Langley is making everyone forget the spirit of country. “Chicken Fried” by Zac Brown, “Jolene” by Dolly Parton, and Taylor Swift’s first three albums are all real examples of fun country music. 

Whatever’s going on with country music needs to be fixed and Langley needs to go back to whatever factory turned her into an industry plant.

Categories: Arts & Entertainment