25. March 2025
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Media Review

Devin Dawson – The Pink Slip EP

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Devin Dawson - The Pink Slip

Devin Dawson - The Pink Slip
1.5

Rating

 1.5/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Good song "He Loved Her"

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Too many weak songs
  • "Who's gonna hold ya" is a nice track, but arrangement is a total fail
  • Just two new songs

Devin Dawson rocketed into the country music scene with his debut single All on Me in 2017. However, it felt that thereafter, his career slowed a bit down (despite having One Beer with Hardy and Lauren Alaina in 2020). In early 2021, on 15th January, he is presenting his The Pink Slip, a six track EP. Here is my review.

 

Devin Dawson – About The Artist

Devin Dawson Durrett was born on 30th January 1989 in Orangevale near Sacramento, California, USA. He first came in public focus by doing Taylor Swift mashup videos on YouTube alongside his friend Louisa Wendorff. In 2017, he released his debut single All On Me, which was especially successful in airplay (US Country Airplay #2, US Country #6), but also made it to the second spot in the Canadian Charts. The song has roughly 140 million streams on Spotify and went platinum in the US and Canada. He released his debut album Dark House in January 2018, which made it up to the fifth spot in the US Country Album Charts. The Pink Slip is only his second longer play publication so far.

 

Devin Dawson – The Pink Slip – Track by Track

The EP contains six songs and lasts 20 minutes.

1. Range Rover

I’m looking for a girl that’s fine if I drive a pickup
And she does not mind riding in it
With the windows down cranking Keith Whitley loud next to me
I’m looking for a girl who sees past blown speakers
And a broke AC and a bench seat
With a quarter-million miles on the motor
But she was looking for that Range Rover
She just wants that, just wants that Range Rover

Cars and girls – the first song (one of four already released before the EP) checkboxes two key country music stereotypes. Hope there are not too many girls out there who date their guys based on the brand of his car. Nice song – but the more I listen to country music the less I can identify with lyrics like Range Rover.

2. I Got a Truck

The Pink Slip the EP is refering to is the certificate of ownership for a car. Thus, it is not too surprisingly that the car topic is popping up again. I liked the Range Rover one more, honestly.  British cars are still more European than pick-ups, maybe.

3. Not On My Watch

Not On My Watch is a quite straight modern country pop song with electric sounds as well as guitar solos, which verses which always have a bit of a hip hop spirit to me. Not bad – but so far, none of the three songs is really giving me a really good feeling.

4. Whatever Forever Is

One look at you and girl, I got it down
Can’t help it that it’s falling out my mouth
I guess I had to wrap my arms around it
To wrap my head, to wrap my heart around it, yeah
One kiss and baby that was it for me
Now I just wanna spend eternity
With you loving on me just like this
For whatever forever is

I better don’t really want to understand how you wrap your head around something… At least this is what stayed in my mind after I listened to the song for the first time. I would say that What Forever Is illustrates most what I feel about the first tracks. The song is not really bad at first sight, but the more you get into it, the more it is questionable. Neither a good pop hit nor a good country song.

5. He Loved Her

He had a dog, he drank a beer
He drove the same truck fifteen years
He built a house up on some dirt
He wore his first name on his shirt
He said a prayer, got up at dawn
Showed up to cheer the home team on
He earned his keep and kept his word
He lived his life and he loved her

Even though that song is again too close to too many country songs, He Loved Her is by far the best song on The Pink Slip. It is also the song, which has the most characteristic country music sound.

6. Who’s Gonna Hold Ya

I feel the lyrics – and also the melody – is really nice and having such a good potential – I just don’t understand why you finally destroy the whole good sound by killing the whole atmosphere by adding a completely disturbing dominant electronic drum sound on top of everything (which by the way does not fit to the rather slow character of the melody). Why?

 

Devin Dawson – The Pink Slip – Track by Track

Here is The Pink Slip on Spoitify:

 

Devin Dawson – The Pink Slip – My View

The Pink Slip lacks character and identify to me. It is neither a country EP (though the best track is definitely a country song) nor pop. Who’s Gonna Hold Ya makes me struggle to believe that there is a concept behind these songs. The good thing is that there are four previously released tracks – so you will definitely know beforehand if it worth spending some more funds to finally have the complete six track collection. I definitely would not recommend.

 

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