TENILLE TOWNES

                                                                     + BRYAN ADAMS

                                                              "The Thing That Wrecks You" 

                                                               Columbia Nashville

With multiple CCMA and Juno Awards already to her credit, as well as a nod from the ACM’s in 2020 as their ‘New Female Artist of the Year,” Tenille Townes has absolutely exploded onto the country music scene over the past few years.

Her 2022 album Masquerades earned high acclaim while spawning the Top 10 Canadian Country smash “When’s It Gonna Happen,” while her latest single, “The Last Time” landed inside the Top 5.

She now returns with her first new music of 2023, “The Thing That Wrecks You,” and she’s intriguingly tapped fellow Canadian superstar Bryan Adams to join her on the track.

The moodiness of the instrumentation perfectly wraps into the heartbreaker lyric as Townes and Adams swap very poetic lines, singing comparisons through the first verse with her stating, “You’re a passing car on a one-way street,” while Adams retorts with, “You’re a photograph in a house of flames.”

The darker side of the heartbreak that love can bring into someone’s life is lifted through the chorus as the two bring their very gifted voices together to face the harsh realities of something that started out like a dream come true ending up becoming a toxic pairing that’s now on the verge of their inevitable split:

“We’re running down a darker road

Where even angels fear to go

Stars fall like a lonely tear

When they’re crashing through the atmosphere

It looked just like a dream come true

But love can lead you straight into

The thing that wrecks you”

Adams lending his voice to the true duet really helps enhance both perspectives of the call and answer that appears in the second verse, especially when Townes declares “it’s not your fault” and Adams then splits the line with, “Oh, yeah it is”; an unbridled conscious that shows each of them trying to shoulder the blame rather than pointing fingers.

This is a really moody song for Townes, but one that you’d see coming if you’ve been paying attention to the feel of her past few releases.

Mainstream radio in the states has been a really interesting place for Townes’ music in the past with “Girl Who Didn’t Care” and “Somebody’s Daughter” being her two singles that made the most impact on it. But with her amazingly solid track record in Canada, and the addition of Bryan Adams on this song, it’s safe to say that no matter what happens at US radio she’s absolutely looking at her next #1 in her home country.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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