Format Digital download Genre Country
heartland rock Label EMI Nashville | Recorded 2015 Length 5:18 | |
Released November 9, 2015 (2015-11-09) | ||
"Mr. Misunderstood" is a song by American country music artist Eric Church. It is the title track to, and lead single from, his fifth studio album, Mr. Misunderstood. The song is about a teenager being addressed by the narrator and given sympathy. It received positive reviews from critics. "Mr. Misunderstood" peaked at number 15 on both the Billboard Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts respectively. It also charted at number 84 on the Hot 100. The song has sold 197,000 copies in the United States as of February 2015. It received similar chart success in Canada, peaking at number 7 on the Country chart and number 70 on the Canadian Hot 100.
Contents
The accompanying music video for the song follows a teenage boy, representing the story's character, learning to play a guitar with Church singing the song in a school room.
Content
The song's narrator addresses a misfit teenager, expressing sympathy for his being "misunderstood". In it, Church "says some encouraging words about the good things that will happen one day when people will appreciate him — especially the ladies." The song features no chorus, but rather a series of verses that all end in the title phrase. Among the lyrics, he name-drops singers that have influenced him, including Elvis Costello, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. He also recalls a young woman with whom he was in love, despite her father's unfavorable opinions of him, as well as Church's own "journey to becoming the musician he is now". As the song's tempo decreases again, Church echoes the title phrase, along with the words "I understand". The song features several changes in tempo, with the middle verses being faster than the slower verses at the beginning and end. Acoustic guitar and steel guitar are the primary instruments.
Critical
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that the song "opens the door upon the possibility that the rest of the songs on the record -- the tales of heartbreak and longing, maybe even the stories of love and family -- are characters, not confession." Billy Dukes of Taste of Country was also favorable, saying that "At its core, the track is a five-minute pep talk to the freak that lives inside all of us. He keeps rattling that nerve, and it keeps feeling good."
Rolling Stone ranked "Mr. Misunderstood" at number 28 on its annual year-end list to find the best songs of 2015.
Commercial
On the charts dated for the week ending November 21, 2015, the song debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard Country Airplay and No. 32 on Hot Country Songs, with 18,000 copies sold in its first week. It was the second most-added song to playlists of country stations on the publication's survey, behind only "Break on Me" by Keith Urban. The corresponding album debuted at No. 3 on Top Country Albums in the same week. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 92 for chart dated January 16. 2016. The song peaked at No. 15 on both the Country Airplay and the Hot Country Songs charts. The song has sold 197,000 copies in the US as of February 2015.
Music video
The song's music video features Church singing the song in a school room. A teenage boy representing the one in the story is seen learning how to play guitar, and at the end of the video, leads the band in the song. The music video won the award for Video of the Year at the 2016 ACM Awards.