"Withdrawals" 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, ...

artist

Tyler Farr Tyler Lynn Farr (born February 5, 1984) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Originally signed to BNA Records Farr released two singles for the label before it closed. He transferred to Columbia Records Nashville, releasing two al ...

. It was released to radio on June 15, 2015 by

Columbia Nashville Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the Amer ...

as the second single from his second studio album '' Suffer in Peace''. Written by

Josh Kear Josh Kear is a Nashville-based songwriter signed to Sony/ATV Music Publishing. In 2007, he cowrote Carrie Underwood’s hit "Before He Cheats" with Chris Tompkins. The song spent five weeks at the top of the charts. His song " Drinking Class", ...

Gordie Sampson Gordon Francis Sampson (born July 30, 1971) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and producer from Big Pond, Nova Scotia. Beginning his career as a performer on his hometown island of Cape Breton, both in bands and on his own, Sampson has gone on t ...

and

Hillary Lindsey Hillary Lee Lindsey is an American singer-songwriter. She has written songs with or for a number of artists including Michelle Branch, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Shakira, Lady A, Gary Allan, Sara Evans, Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Bo ...

, the song is about a man dealing with the fallout of a relationship like an addiction. Despite receiving positive reviews from critics, "Withdrawals" had minor success compared to the previous single " A Guy Walks Into a Bar", peaking at numbers 47 and 52 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts respectively. This was due to the label wanting to withdraw the single from radio and release “Better in Boots” instead, feeling that a more upbeat single would climb the charts quicker and bolster his concert audience. An accompanying music video for the song, directed by Eric Welch, features Farr inside a glass box as he's being submerged into water as it fills up.

Background and development

"Withdrawals" is a break-up song that deals with the fallout of a relationship like an addiction. While compiling the track list for '' Suffer in Peace'', Farr came across the song in his inbox of potential tracks and chose it to be part of the album at the last minute. The demo's production, consisting only of a piano and

drum loop In music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. Longer sections can also be repeated: for example, a player might loop what they play on an entire verse of a song in order to ...

, was what fascinated Farr because of its removal from his given genre, and that he wanted to record it into a country song as if done by the Foo Fighters. He also added that his vocal performance on the track adds believability to it and transcends it from a country song into a story.

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 ...

'' gave the song a positive review, saying that "Tyler Farr won't be offended if you double-check the name on the car stereo when "Withdrawals" gets to the chorus. This massive vocal performance sounds nothing like the more mid-register songs Farr has released from his first two albums. All that stuff about classical training … yeah, here it is." Jamie Parmenter from ''

Renowned for Sound ''Renowned for Sound'' is an Australian online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a pri ...

'' said that Farr gives the track "an attitude and ease of someone comfortable with himself." In 2017, ''Billboard'' contributor Chuck Dauphin put "Withdrawals" at number four on his top 10 list of Farr's best songs.

Music video

The music video was directed by Eric Welch and premiered in June 2015. The video opens with a profile close-up of Farr as the camera goes into his eye and shows Farr inside a glass box as it fills with water. Farr said in an interview that the visual aesthetics were influenced by the industrial band Nine Inch Nails: "When we were trying to come up with visuals to help explain the emotion, we looked at footage of

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...

performances in NIN music videos, art galleries of people in glass boxes, and then tried our best to put those against the lyrics of the song."

Chart performance

The song only reached number 52 on the Country Airplay chart before it was pulled from country radio.

References

{{Tyler Farr 2015 singles 2015 songs Tyler Farr songs Columbia Nashville Records singles Country ballads Song recordings produced by Julian King (recording engineer) Songs written by Josh Kear Songs written by Gordie Sampson Songs written by Hillary Lindsey