Everything About Garth Brooks' "Baby, Let's Lay Down and Dance" is Terrible

As a 90s country kid, it pains me to criticize Garth Brooks too heavily. I understand that he brought distorted guitar into the mainstream to a higher degree than artists had previously, but he also regularly recorded songs deeply rooted in country music tradition. There was always more good than bad with Garth Brooks' music.

At least that was the case until Man Against Machine was released in 2014. It wasn't a sellout record. It wasn't pandering to lyrical tropes or production trends. The songs just weren't very good and, quite frankly, the production on the album left much to be desired. Lead single "People Loving People" sounded like it was recorded in a pole barn, while second single "Mom" made no noise on radio and was so overly sentimental it stumbled into melodramatic nonsense and and stubbornly stayed there. There are several good non-singles on the album, but much like "People Loving People," the quality of the recording failed the songs long before they had a chance to make their full impact.

Now we have the atrocious "Baby, Let's Lay Down and Dance." Once again the production is disastrous--I honestly wonder where and how they recorded this, because every instrument gets lost in the mix and Garth's voice has no power at all. When listening to this song, I feel like the source of the music and I are sitting at opposite ends of a long tunnel. 

Unfortunately, that's just the beginning of the long list of problems with this song. It's boring lyrically, goes absolutely nowhere, and has no lasting impact. I had to listen to this song 3 times because it was so boring my mind kept wandering. If a song can't grip you upon first listen, that's usually the first sign that there's nothing special about it. 

Swing and a miss, Garth. 3/10