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In their short-lived career, The Band Perry – comprised of siblings Kimberly, Neil and Reid – delivered an impressive body of work across two full-length records.
With an eye for pop stardom, the band jetted into dark-pop territory with the release of several singles and an EP, effectively leaving their roots behind.
Here, we detour through their catalog and collect their best country songs.
Mother Like Mine
A trickling ballad, ‘Mother Like Mine’ is dedicated to the band’s mother.
“Our cares would all be freer if the world had a mother like mine”, they sing in unison. Their harmonies are rich but their hearts are richer with the feeling of maternal love.
What could be a sticky-sweet song is a heartfelt, powerful ode instead.
End of Time
Heartbreak can leave you in a whirlwind. With ‘End of Time’, the trio muses on the parting of ways, two hearts shattered into fragments.
Even though the protagonist believes it to be the best, it still doesn’t make the pain any easier to swallow.
I Saw a Light
‘I Saw a Light’ ebbs and flows with its stream-like melody. The band recounts love at first sight, a lightning flash that forever changed their lives.
“You were the very best feeling that I ever felt”, sings Kimberly. Later, she contemplates a sequence of what-ifs that could have resulted in a drastically different outcome. But no matter, what’s done is done.
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
All we really have is the present.
‘Don’t Let Me Be Lonely’ finds the band longing for requited love, the kind that seizes the day and leaves you breathless, but time is ticking. It seems the day has already faded into the next.
Chainsaw
“Love is shady / Love is tragic”, sings Kimberly, exposing her jaded heart.
Love has come and gone, as fleeting as the seasons. It’s a shame; their love was so pure, but that’s how it turns out sometimes.
“It’s hard to bury the hatchet”, the band sings in the chorus.
Back to Me Without You
They say home is where the heart is. Sometimes, you wander away from that comfortable place for love or something else entirely.
Feeling the crush of heartache, the band reflect upon how far they’ve traipsed in the wilderness.
“Oh, I hate feeling fallen”, mourns Kimberly. In shedding the past, she eventually arrives at her new self.
DONE.
A groovier, rock-influenced moment, 'DONE.' makes a venomous revenge statement. "Oh I don't believe in getting even but getting what you deserve”, sings Kimberly.
As a relationship comes burning to the ground, Kimberly tosses her love onto the all-consuming flames.
If there’s just one thing you learn, you never cross her.
All Your Life
Fully in love, Kimberly doesn’t want the moon that hangs overhead or even the entire world. She just wants to be the sole target of her lover’s affections.
“I just wanna be the only girl,” she sings. A sweet melody with decorative instruments, the song gives in to the yearning of love’s desperation with abandon.
Independence
Kimberly longs to get away. “Far as I can run to where freedom is free / There's a road like a long grey ribbon far as I can see”, she sings.
The town of Independence doesn’t live up to its name, with many of its peoples content on living a small life.
But that’s just not for Kimberly. She’s ready to fly.
You Lie
‘You Lie’ is a jaunty little tune that opens the band’s self-titled, debut LP.
Calling out a lover’s lies, Kimberly admits she was wrong all along and sends up a warning that it’s not going to end well for all parties involved.
“My daddy’s gonna straighten you out like a piece of wire”, she sings.
Postcard from Paris
There’s always that one that got away.
Kimberly sings as much with ‘Postcard from Paris', in which she runs into her ex while with her current boyfriend. Her new beau could never live up to him, as she compares him to a postcard from Paris.
It’ll never be as good as the real thing.
Pioneer
The backbone to the band’s second record, ‘Pioneer’ muses on those who came before and forged a path ahead.
Kimberly relates to this idea by envisioning herself marked for a bigger fate. “All I know is I’ll go anywhere”, she sings.
Endless possibilities pepper the horizon, and she looks onward with a gleam in her eye.
Better Dig Two
In Southern Gothic tradition, The Band Perry douses the earth in gasoline and lights the match.
“Here lies a girl whose only crutch was loving one man just a little too much”, rings the darkly-laced chorus. Kimberly’s voice snarls around the words, as she regales the tale of a young woman whose love was just too much to take.
Gentle on My Mind
The trio’s take on this Glen Campbell standard is wholesome and sweet.
Kimberly’s voice burns hot like the summer sun, with her brothers lending their unwavering background harmonies to equal measure.
As their last release before their dark-pop era, it demonstrated their strengths as interpreters and torchbearers of tradition. Too bad they abandoned their roots for stranger pastures.
If I Die Young
A song penned by Kimberly Perry, this ode to death and loss has all the makings of an enduring classic: skin-pricking lyricism, irresistible melody and a sterling lead vocal.
With the sharp blade of a “short life”, Perry’s character replays her life and imagines what could have been. She’s not bitter, just wistful.
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