Jake Owen's New Single "Real Life" is Real Good
Surprises are becoming Jake Owen's trademark, and he just pulled another one out of his hat.
On May 26th, Owen released the first single from his upcoming fifth album. "Real Life" came out of nowhere, and Jake Owen fans everywhere were burning up social media, clamoring to hear it and talk about it. That's how Owen rolls. Just when things are getting pretty quiet, he throws a fast pitch right into your face, and this song is shaking up the airwaves, just as I'm sure Owen's team hoped it would.
"Real Life", written by the dream team of Ross Copperman, Shane McAnally, Ashley Gorley and Josh Osborne, was exactly what was needed to follow Owen's killer ballad, "What We Ain't Got", which put us into a rather melancholy, thoughtful mode. While that song was pretty close to perfection, lyrically and musically, it didn't have the spunk we often expect when we think of Jake Owen. "Real Life" has spunk. Loads of it.
While Jake Owen didn't have a hand in writing the song, it seems he would relate to it very well. The song opens with "Well, I grew up in a real town", and yes, that's true, Owen grew up in Vero Beach, Florida, which is about as real as it gets. Beach, sun, sand and not much else to do. The next line in the song says, "We really did just drive around cause there wasn't shit to do." While I don't know it for sure, I'll assume Owen may have driven around now and again in Vero Beach, for that very reason.
If that isn't "real" enough for you, the song also makes sure the listening audience knows "We drank RC, no real Coke, but our neighbor had a pool." Many of us can relate to that scenario. Mom and Dad lived frugally, we dealt with it and watched as our lucky neighbors floated in their pool, while we sat and perspired in the heat and humidity. That's real life, for sure.
Country radio has picked the song up, but it could easily be a crossover to pop it has that feel to it. The song was influenced by early 90's bands, Sublime and Sugar Ray, yet in my view, it almost sounds a little bit like something from the 70's, perhaps an odd mixture of all of those elements.
Dive bars with bad bands that play too loud, late night excursions to Waffle House and loving and losing are all themes included within the lyrics. Nothing uppity about this tune. It's real. No doubt about it.
In the end, it's probably never going to go down in history as one of the greatest songs ever recorded, but it's fun, it's catchy and above all, it's real. A great song to kick off the summer. Grab a cold one, crank it up and watch your neighbors enjoying their pool. That's real life.
