"Better" is a song recorded by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
singer
Maggie Rose
Maggie Rose Durante (born May 19, 1988) is an American soul music, soul and country music singer. In 2009, Durante signed to Universal Republic as Margaret Durante and released a cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody". A year later, she left Uni ...
. It was released in February 2013 as the second single from her first studio album, ''
Cut to Impress
''Cut to Impress'' is the debut studio album by American country music artist Maggie Rose. The album was released on March 26, 2013, via RPM Entertainment. It includes the singles "I Ain't Your Mama", "Better" and "Looking Back Now".
Content
Magg ...
''. The song was written by Candy Cameron, Deanna Bryant and
Dave Berg.
Content
"Better" is a song about a heartbroken woman who has experienced a loss in her life, which leads her to consume alcohol and seek affection from others as a way to help forget her troubles, because "
hejust want
to feel better." Rose described it by saying that "the song tells a story of someone who resorts to things they might not be necessarily proud of, but that's how they're temporarily alleviating their guilt or their sadness."
Critical reception
Billy Dukes of
Taste of Country
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...
rated the single 3 stars out of 5, saying that "It’s real. A little more detail about the failed romance or some mention of what went wrong might fill in some of the spaces and allow Rose to deliver a more inspired performance. Instead, ‘Better’ is mostly a story of a woman and her drink, which can only get you so far." Matt Bjorke of Roughstock wrote in his review of the album that it "showcases Rose's soft and tender side - perhaps the most on this album."
Music video
The music video for "Better" was directed by Yeah Yeah and premiered on
CMT on May 30, 2013.
It begins with Rose at a cemetery laying a bouquet of flowers on someone's grave, before the song starts. Rose is then shown performing the song from various places in a dimly-lit house and an empty church. At the bridge of the song, she opens the front door of the house to let the light in before appearing outside in the sun, while also being joined by people in the church. The house scenes were filmed at the estate of
William Nichol who served as the mayor of
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
from 1835 to 1837.
Chart performance
Year-end charts
References
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2013 singles
Maggie Rose songs
Song recordings produced by Blake Chancey
Song recordings produced by James Stroud
Songs written by Dave Berg (songwriter)
2013 songs
Songs written by Deanna Bryant