Not Helping

The clock radio is set to a local country station not because it plays a lot of good country music -- it's hit and miss -- but because it has local news and sports segments in the morning.

Today it introduced me to Lee Brice's 2015 single "That Don't Sound Like You," from his third album, I Don't Dance. In it, Brice receives a call from an ex-girlfriend who is apparently struggling in her current relationship. They parted on good terms, it seems, because she calls him in her troubles. Brice notes several things about her that have changed: She has moved to a new town and has a new job, and has cut her hair, all in response to pressure from her new man. Even her voice has changed:

Girl, I'm glad you called, first heard you talk
Took me a second cause I couldn't hear your drawl

Brice laments these changes, as they go against the grain of who his ex really was, which was what she was like when she was him. We can give him the benefit of the doubt on that and not think that he's just wishing she was more like she was when she was with him in the same way the current fellow wants her to be more like what he wants. But there is a problem.

Obviously, the sympathetic Brice intends his ex to recall how she expresses herself and enjoys what she enjoys, rather than what some paramour or other wants her to enjoy. He is hoping to help her feel better by recalling those days. Thus, the verses end with the same line, leading into the chorus that describes what the ex was like when she was with Brice: "'Cause you don't sound like you anymore." So the next line, the first line of the chorus, tells us what she sounded like when she was with Brice, which is what the real her sounds like: "Truck tires on a gravel road."

Lee, you're not helping.