Kyle’s Top 10 WORST Country Singles Of 2022

Country songs fall all over the quality spectrum, but only a chosen few can earn the dubious distinction of sitting at the bottom of the barrel. Through a special combination of poor production, subpar songwriting, and vacuous vocals, the songs presented below are the sorts of headache-inducing tracks that move listeners to plug their ears, turn their dials, or just run screaming from the room.

Just as with my mid-year list, these songs will be presented without comment because a) I’m lazy (so much so that I’ve been copy-pasting all this opening text since 2018), and b) I’ve wasted enough words on this junk already in my prior reviews. Let’s get this over with quickly, shall we?

Last Year’s “Winner”: Blake Shelton, “Come Back As A Country Boy” (1/10)

Shelton’s 2022 wasn’t much better than his 2021, as he almost pulled off the double-double of repeating as the #1 worst song in the genre and walking away with this year’s Dustin Lynch Memorial Anti-Excellence Award. How close did he come? Read on, if you dare…

Dishonorable Mentions:

	Artist, Song	Final Rating
#15	Nate Smith, “Whiskey On You”	4/10
#14	Tyler Hubbard, “5 Foot 9”	4/10
#13	Parmalee, “Girl In Mine”	4/10
#12	Sam Hunt, “Water Under The Bridge”	4/10
#11	Blake Shelton, “No Body”	4/10

#10: Toby Keith, “Oklahoma Breakdown” (4/10)

#9: Hailey Whitters, “Everything She Ain’t” (4/10)

#8: Morgan Wallen, “You Proof” (4/10)

#7: Mitchell Tenpenny, “Truth About You” (4/10)

#6: Morgan Wallen, “Wasted On You” (4/10)

For putting two of his three singles in the bottom ten this year, Wallen gets the nod over Shelton for the Dustin Lynch Memorial Anti-Excellence Award. I’m really ready for this guy to just go away…

#5: Chris Janson, “Keys To The Country” (3/10)

#4: Luke Bryan, “Country On” (3/10)

#3: Walker Hayes, “Y’all Life” (2/10)

#2: Brantley Gilbert & Blake Shelton ft. Vince Gill, “Heaven By Then” (2/10)

Two things to note here:

• Gilbert spends back-to-back years as part of the second-worst song of the year.
• Shelton comes up just short of the worst spot here, thanks to a new (and very angry) kid on the block…

#1: Bailey Zimmerman, “Fall In Love” (2/10)

With his dark sound, his awful off-brand Morgan Wallen vocals, and his toxic attitude, Zimmerman crowned himself king of the Ex-Boyfriend trend with this “incel origin story,” and thus squeaked out a nail-biter over Gilbert/Shelton/Gill and Hayes to be the worst country single of 2022.

If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that Zimmerman doesn’t have the track record of garbage that Wallen or Shelton does, and with “Rock And A Hard Place” being a small step in the right direction, there’s still a chance that Zimmerman can pull out of this tailspin and be a tolerable artist. (As this year’s best-song list will show, redemption is possible for anyone…) Until that day arrives, however, I humbly ask Zimmerman, Wallen, Shelton, Tyler Hubbard (don’t think I didn’t notice you came one spot away from have two dishonorable mentions), and everyone else on this list to make better single choices in the future.