Betting on Dolly Parton separately, knowing her quality away from Cheat Codes, is a safe move. But Parton’s collaboration with that dance-pop disaster group on Bets On Us is expectedly poor. Tropical house stylings paired with an almost unrecognisable vocal performance from a country legend. A quality artist alone, but paired with a chart-ready marketing machine proving quite useless. What could have been a pop-ready bit of country instead becomes a disturbing disaster. Lyrical simplicity and a clear cut in the studio were all that Bets On Us needed. Instead, a sloppy production and a style mismatch occur, throwing listeners into a trap-genre horror show that is as grating as it is comically bad.
It is hard to describe Bets On Us as anything more than whining, horrid noise. Production slop that hits the lowest bar possible. A track that hopes to flow between rejecting the notion of gambling to betting on an individual and their talent. Either way, it is a gamble, that much is clear through life and unclear on this track. Cheat Codes gets the better end of the deal with this one because at least the cloudy production clears for their verse work. Obnoxious mixing makes the rest of the track unlistenable, though. Parton’s part in this piece is redundant at best. Her presence on the track is barely noticeable under the thick layering of instrumentals, electronics and filler. There is a lack of confidence in the wrought lyrics but the decision to drown them out with something that sounds even worse is an awful choice.
Auotuned manipulation, lowbrow lyrics and bro-country sub-genre stylings do away with any qualities Parton could hope to engage with here. It feels generic but excels at being awful through flawed hopes of traditional country blurring with electronic flair. What occurs instead is a messy production that makes Bets On Us unlistenable. A defunct track, one of many from the sudden release of One Night in Nashville, a collection of country songs that have been scattered and ruined by the Jacob Ubizz and Trevor Dahl production. Three songwriters were needed for this track, which is funnier when barely any of the lyrics are understandable under the heavy-handed production disaster.
Country pop dies at the sword of Bets On Us. Marketing ideas that linger behind the reasoning for pairing Cheat Codes and Dolly Parton make sense. Their track does not. Unnecessary, loud and unforgivable. An utterly mediocre opening ruined by the notion of “gamblin’ on the game of love”. Bets On Us manages to ruin its chorus so immediately by lacking faith in Parton’s vocal presence. If listeners can cut through that annoying explosion of studio filters, then they may, if they are lucky, manage to pick out a few notes of a banjo or some other fundamental country stylings. Good luck in doing so. It is much harder when Cheat Codes have buried any semblance of quality deep below their tired and empty presence. It is neither a fun pop track because it lacks the flow and pace of the simplest pieces, nor is it an engaged country piece because the only “country” aspect of it is having a legend of the genre ruined by elements out of her hands.
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