MITCHELL TENPENNY

                                                              "Bigger Mistakes" 

                                                               Riser House/Columbia Nashville

These past few years have been monumental for Mitchell Tenpenny. Where his “Truth About You” and guest spot turn on Chris Young’s “At the End of a Bar” in 2021 both catapulted his status, his continued success last year with “We Got History” rocketed him from rising artist to watch to one of country music’s hottest talents who has arrived.

He officially now returns to radio with “Bigger Mistakes.”

The song, co-written by Mitchell, Chris DeStefano, Josh Kear, and Michael Whitworth, leans into the familiarity of his mid-tempo comfort zone while wrapping around a melody that immediately gets your toes tapping, allowing him to perfectly enhance the lyric with the natural grit and raw honesty embedded into his voice.

He runs down a list of regret filled decisions that already lines his past through the opening verse, including selling his first guitar because he needed money, wrecking his truck on 65, a not toasting a glass of whiskey with Joe Diffie before he passed away.

While owning those past mistakes, Tenpenny also cleverly hits on the life lesson learned as he strides into the lines just before the chorus when he tells of how he no longer makes big things out of small things anymore, before expertly flipping the script with the jabbing line that directly follows, “Just like the night you walked out the door.”

Slapping the chorus with a dance along groove fueled by an instable clap along beat, he aptly knocks his ex off her high horse, turning this song into an anthem like kiss off when he sings:

“I’ve had so much more to lose

Hate to say it, baby, but you’re old news

I don’t even think about you when I’ve had a few

So get over yourself

I’ve made bigger mistakes than you”

Continuing with focus on past mistakes, the second verse sees him maturely embracing his shortcomings in a past relationship with the one that got away, while holding tight to his moving on swagger when he slyly shouts that it wasn’t with his most recent ex; “I bet you think I’m talking ‘bout you but I ain’t.”

Likening this song to Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” what makes “Bigger Mistakes” so good is how its tone never comes across a bitter so much as him being okay with the breakup and seeing that it’s simply a moment of pivoting that’s moved him forward rather than setting him back.

With all the success that’s already swirling around Mitchell Tenpenny, combining with an addictively catchy melody and a relatable goodbye/I’m fine lyric, there’s no doubt that he’s staring at another smash hit with “Bigger Mistakes.”

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis) 

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