How’s everybody liking the new Eric Church album so far?
It’s really no secret that Chief is one of my all-time favorite artists, so of course I’ve had Evangeline vs. The Machine on repeat since it dropped a week or so ago. But as I usually do, I decided to go back and listen to the rest of Church’s catalog again too – and man, does he have some great songs.
When you have a catalog as deep as Church’s, it makes it hard as a listener to pick out your favorites. As I was listening back through albums like Sinners Like Me and Carolina, I kept coming across songs that I hadn’t listened to in awhile and thinking, “Man, I forgot how much I loved that one.” And then there were more recent songs on Desperate Man and Heart & Soul that just never got the credit they deserved, or maybe I just didn’t appreciate them as much at the time.
But as I was listening, I decided I was going to try to rank every single one of Church’s songs that he’s released over his two-decade long career.
Spoiler alert: It was way harder than I thought it was going to be.
Church has released eight studio albums: Sinners Like Me, Carolina, Chief, The Outsiders, Mr. Misunderstood, Desperate Man, Heart & Soul, and most recently, Evangeline vs. The Machine. And he also released an EP, Caldwell County, back in 2011. Along with the bonus tracks from each albums, that makes 105 songs total that Church has released – and let me tell you, ranking them wasn’t an easy task.
I know nobody’s going to agree with all of my rankings, and that’s fine. This is just my opinion at this moment in time. Ask me again tomorrow (or in an hour) and I can pretty much guarantee that they’ll change. But hopefully as you go through you’ll discover – or re-discover – some songs that you had forgotten about, or maybe deserve a second look.
Or maybe you’ll just totally disagree with me and disregard anything else I have to say. And that’s fine too. Like I said, this is just my opinion.
And one more thing: As an Eric Church fan, I would take pretty much every song on this list over the best song in most artists’ catalogs. Just because a song is ranked lower doesn’t mean I don’t like it. There’s not a lot of difference for me between 1 and 100 when it comes to Eric Church songs.
So with all that said here’s my attempt at ranking every Eric Church song:
105. Jenny
I’ll be honest, this was an easy one for me. I’ve just never been a fan of the song, and it’s pretty much my only skip in Church’s entire catalog. But hey, 1 out of 105 ain’t bad.
104. The Joint
103. Dark Side
102. Chevy Van
101. Look Good And You Know It
100. Three Year Old
99. Heart Like A Wheel
98. My Heart’s Got A Memory
97. Roller Coaster Ride
96. Kill A Word
95. Hangin’ Around
94. Solid
93. Rock & Roll Found Me
92. Without You Here
91. Broke Record
90. Bad Mother Trucker
89. Young And Wild
88. Bright Side Girl
87. Keep On
86. You Make It Look So Easy
85. Faster Than My Angels Can Fly
84. Where I Wanna Be
83. Do Side
82. How ‘Bout You
81. Break It Kind Of Guy
80. Cold One
79. The Outsiders
78. Devil, Devil
77. Doing Life With Me
76. I’m Gettin’ Stoned
75. Drink In My Hand
74. His Kind Of Money (My Kind Of Love)
73. Love Your Love The Most
72. The Snake
71. Love Shine Down
70. Jack Daniels
69. That’s Damn Rock & Roll
68. Clap Hands
67. Mad Man
66. Lovin’ Me Anyway
Casual Eric Church fans might not remember this one, but it was a bonus track from Chief. It’s never been released on streaming, which is a shame because it’s a banger. But luckily you can still find it on YouTube if you either missed it when it came out or just want to go back and give it another listen.
65. Through My Ray-Bans
64. Like Jesus Does
63. Ain’t Killed Me Yet
62. Longer Gone
61. Hungover & Hard Up
60. Drowning Man
59. Bunch of Nothing
58. Creepin’
57. Like A Wrecking Ball
56. Hell On The Heart
55. Stick That In Your Country Song
54. Never Break Heart
53. Crazyland
52. Rocket’s White Lincoln
51. Kiss Her Goodbye
This one’s probably a few spots higher because it contains one of my all-time favorite lines from Church:
“My lips can’t seem to drink up enough neon
To kiss her goodbye”
50. Chattanooga Lucy
49. Lone Wolf
48. Hippie Radio
47. Jukebox and A Bar
46. Before She Does
45. Bleed On Paper
44. People Break
43. Evangeline
42. Higher Wire
This may be one of Church’s weirdest songs, and I have a feeling a lot of people would have it near the bottom of their lists, but it’s actually one of my favorites from Desperate Man. Do I know what it means? Not a clue. Do I love it? Absolutely.
41. Darkest Hour
40. Desperate Man
39. Heart On Fire
38. Hands Of Time
37. Carolina
36. Lotta Boot Left To Fill
35. Homeboy
34. Livin’ Part Of Life
33. Two Pink Lines
32. Country Music Jesus
31. Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones
30. Some Of It
29. Holdin’ My Own
28. Mistress Named Music
27. Give Me Back My Hometown
26. Round Here Buzz
25. Smoke A Little Smoke
24. Over When It’s Over
23. Pledge Allegiance To The Hag
22. Monsters
21. Johnny
20. Mixed Drinks About Feelings
19. Russian Roulette
18. Springsteen
17. What I Almost Was
16. Storm In Their Blood
15. Can’t Take It With You
This song has another one of my all-time favorite lines from Church:
“Never realized how much she brought to the table
‘Til I went to set my cup of coffee where the table used to be”
14. Record Year
13. Guys Like Me
12. Hell Of A View
11. A Man Who Was Gonna Die Young
10. Where She Told Me To Go
9. Those I’ve Loved
8. Heart Of The Night
This is one I never felt like got the love that it should have, not only for its rock opera sound but also for the vivid imagery in the lyrics about running off into the “still-beating heart of the night.”
7. These Boots
6. Talladega
5. Mr. Misunderstood
4. The Hard Way
3. Knives Of New Orleans
2. Sinners Like Me
1. Lightning
And there you have it. How did I do? Chances are you don’t agree with my list, and chances are that as soon as I post this I won’t agree with my list either.
But one thing’s for sure: When it comes to other mainstream country artists, nobody has a catalog that can hold a candle to Eric Church’s.
