Darryl Worley
“Have You Forgotten?”
(Dreamworks Records)
Kill! Kill! USA! USA! Fuck the French! Fuck their heat wave! Ha! Ha! Ha! USA! USA! USA! Kill Iraqis! Make them pay! USA! Make them pay for what happened on that day! USA! USA! USA! Or have you forgotten? USA! USA! Okay, I’m over that. The title track is amusingly quaint and terribly dated. It’s all about getting Bin Laden. Remember Bin Laden? He was that Bogeyman all of America was obsessed with getting after September 11th 2001? He was the one George W. Bush promised he’d personally go out and capture himself if need be, but shortly thereafter realized Bin Laden didn’t control the world’s third largest oil reserves? Do you remember? Yeah, well… That goddamn Osama Bin Laden (twang, twang, twee) He has never been caughten’ (twang, twang, twee) Or have you gone and forgotten (twang, twang, twee) that what he did was really rotten (twang, tweeeeeee) to the poor old USA!
Worley’s lyrics are facile cash-ins designed to capitalize on the country music fans’ grief and simplistic notions of revenge, liberty, freedom and justice. The music is vacuous, over-produced and uber-clean, holding none of the grit and passion of the genre. Worley sings as if the words his lyrics are composed of hold no meaning. He sounds cold and indifferent even as he’s preaching about the just deserts the US should deliver upon those who spitefully smote her. Yup, he sure is inflamed about all the wrongs committed against his homeland, but comes off with a feeling as remote as a wealthy Indonesian tourist in a French brothel. To sum up Worley’s record, allow let me say, “USA! USA! USA!”
