15. August 2025
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Media Review

Jordan Davis – Learn The Hard Way

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Jordan Davis - Learn The Hard Way

Jordan Davis - Learn The Hard Way
3.7

Rating

 3.7/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Great storytelling
  • 17 songs (9 of them are new)

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Too much streamlined Nashville mainstream music sound

It’s been quite a while ago that I featured Jordan Davis in a dedicated posting on Flyctory.com. My two EP reviews of Buy Dirt and Jordan Davis are dated as of 2021 and 2020. His somehow unofficial announcement that he will be playing the Country To Country Festivals in Rotterdam and Berlin in 2026 drew quite some attention on him recently. Thus, I definitely had to have a deeper listen on his album Learn The Hard Way, released on 15th August 2025.

 

Jordan Davis – About The Artist

Jordan Carl Wheeler Davis is a US-American country and country pop musician. He was born on 30th March 1988 in Shreveport, Louisiana. His uncle and his brother are also musicians. After graduating at Louisiana State University, he moved to Nashville in 2012. Four years later, he signed a record deal, which lead to his debut album Home State. Peaking 6th in the US Country Album charts, it became a platinum album domestically and a golden record in Canada. In 2023, his sophomore record Bluebird Days was even slightly more successful. Learn the Hard Way. So far, five Jordan Davis songs topped the US Country charts.

 

Jordan Davis – Learn The Hard Way – Track by Track

The 17 song album lasts 51 minutes.

1. Her Way Or The Highway

Learn The Hard Way kicks off with the stomping beats of Her Way Or The Highway. While the song feels very pop-ish in the first moments, it rather moves towards a country-rock style song thereafter. With an intuitive song and melody, Jordan Davis welcomes you to his 2025 album.

2. Bar None

Bar None has been one of the two key singles towards the record. The summer-style country strummer stays in your mind. Some five months after the original single release date, the track still works out well and makes modern country music listeners smile.

3. Mess With Missing You (With Carly Pearce)

Together with the album, this collaboration with Carly Pearce has been published as a new feature single. The song does have a certain catch and the duet-style tends to be attractive in general. On the other hand, though, I feel, the song does lack having these moments or twists which in fact turn it into a memorable listen.

You’re like whiskey
I can’t even have one sip
Not even just a little bit like I did before
It’s just too risky
If I start, then I can’t quit
And all that moving on I did goes out the door
So I don’t mess with missing you no more

4. In Case You Missed It

Another song already released before the album is In Case You Missed It. With some 6.5 million streams on Spotify at the time of album release, it performed rather averagely. The song does have a nice storytelling, but it also cannot deny that it feels like a typical Nashville mainstream country write. Bad luck – I feel it deserves better.

5. Ain’t Enough Road

So I hit that highway set to drive you out my mind – this line from the pre-chorus describes the topic of the song already very precisely. Unfortunately, this way of mentally getting out of a relationship did not work out. But it leads to a nice story – and a good song on Learn The Hard Way.

And I thought maybe by Memphis
I’ll miss you less than I’m missing you now
Might roll right through Oklahoma
Leave you in a red-dust cloud
I thought by Vegas it’d make it
A little better, but no
There’s too much of us to let go
And there just ain’t enough road
There just ain’t enough road

6. Son Of A Gun

My mama was a pistol, they made a son of a gun – not sure if you would describe the relationship to your parents like that in other parts of the world. Nonetheless, you have to clearly state that the album so far lives from its lyrics and stories. The melodies don’t have too many special moments in stock so far. Good modern country tunes, which feel a bit too streamlined to me.

7. Jesus Wouldn’t Do

The finer and more ballad-alike Jesus Wouldn’t Do does add at least a bit of variety to the listen so far. Davis feels very personal and relatable in this song. The song has been released the week before CMA Fest – less than three million streams on Spotify so far tell that the average audience does not appreciate that.

8. Learn The Hard Way

The ticking rhythm in the background of the title track’s chorus adds a nice touch. I’ve never known the broke side of a heartbreak, but I’d say I’m ’bout to learn the hard way – the song is another break-up track. But overall, a nice listen.

9. I Ain’t Sayin’

Out of all songs released before the album, I Ain’t Sayin’ has been the most successful one. The slightly more pop-ish style does work well. To me, it is not the peak of listening to this album, though.

10. Good Gone Bad

The opening riffs to Good Gone Bad, the dark and rocking style in the first part of the track – they promise some other character. Indeed, Jordan Davis is delivering a more rocking track in the chorus. The vocals in the stanzas lean towards rap and hip hop here and there. The song feels very modern, but also rather unique in the context of Learn The Hard Way. This makes it even more striking than the song would likely be individually.

11. Memory Don’t Mess Around

Jordan Davis’ love stories don’t feel to be the most fortunate ones in recent past – at least if you use this record as a metrics. Memory Don’t Mess Around does not work out in the context of the album to me, though. It will be much better for a summer festival (or the 2026 C2C…), though.

I made this bed you ain’t sleeping in
I close my eyes, you come creeping in
I’m on the ropes, throwing in the towel
Tryna forget you but baby, I keep on finding out
Your memory sure don’t mess around

12. Keeping The World Away

Keeping The World Away is one of the slower songs of the album. It is a typical country track, stating traditional values like caring about your family first. The melodic setting turns it into a nice listen.

13. Know You Like That

Towards the end of the album, there are couple of previously released songs. The acoustic guitar opening of Know You Like That sets a very intimate setting. The chorus is maybe a bit too loud in contrast to that. Overall, the song is definitely still an emotional highlight of the album.

14. Only All The Time

I cannot deny that I feel a bit of tired. Yeah, summer is striking in Germany while I write this review. But more than that, I just cannot find words any more. Songs like Only All The Time are not too bad individually. But they don’t add a new message, a new style to the album. They are just there. The song may be on one of your playlists one day and play a nice role there. But it will not help you reminding the Learn The Hard Way album.

15. Turn This Truck Around

This one is punching, rocking, a bit of outside the standards set by the fourteen songs before. And I feel how much I appreciate the song while writing this review. Definitely one of strongest messages Jordan Davis sends in his 2025 long-play.

16. Louisiana Stick (feat. Marcus King)

A blues swag and the rock attitude added by Marcus King turns Louisiana Stick into my favorite listen of this album. It shows that Jordan Davis can deliver songs which are significantly outside the box in which Learn The Hard Way has been produced.

17. Muddy The Water

Countryside life, religion, even some drinking – the closing song has it all. The gentle and slow setting leads to one of the nicest listens of the album and is a beautiful fade-out.

We towed the line ‘tween saint and sinner
And burned some good nights down to embers
Left more than a few things out in that river
Drinking spirit from a bottle, sending prayers to the Father
Damn sure knew how to muddy the water

 

Jordan Davis – Learn The Hard Way – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Jordan Davis – Learn The Hard Way – My View

I really struggle with this album. Maybe I am too harsh to it. But especially when listening to 17 songs (which I appreciate) and you more and more feel that Learn The Hard Way has been produced within too narrow limits, it felt more and more tiring to me. The individual songs are fine, some are good. But this is not an album. It is a set of songs, you can (more or less) pick from randomly to upgrade your playlist.

The music is streamlined for mainstream radio for the price of lacking character. Ten out of the 17 songs are between 2:45 and 3:00 minutes. I rarely felt this that strongly than here. Especially as the album also illustrates that Jordan Davis is an excellent performer and storyteller.

Favorite Song: Louisiana Stick

 

Jordan Davis – Ain’t Enough Road European Tour 2026

Briefly before album release, Jordan Davis released some tour dates in Europe in 2026. The C2C appearances are not confirmed, but rather obvious.

Fr 20.02.2026 Belfast (United Kingdom) – SSE Arena
Su 22.02.2026 Glasgow – OVO-Hydro
We 25.02.2026 Manchester – O2 Apollo
Th 25.02.2026 Manchester – O2 Apollo
Sa 28.02.2026 London – OVO Arena Wembley
Su 01.03.2026 Birmingham – O2 Academy
We 04.03.2026 Zurich (Switzerland) – Volkshaus
Fr 06.03.2026 Rotterdam (Netherlands) – RTM Stage / Country To Country
Sa 07.03.2026 Berlin (Germany) – Uber Eats Music Hall / Country To Country

 

Country Music Reviews with Tour Dates

Here are all my media reviews of country music coming with tour dates:

 

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