Jordan Davis’ Latest Radio Single Is a ‘Mess’: ‘The Melody Just Locked Me In’
Categoria: Musica
Billboard's Makin' Tracks column looks at the writing and recording behind the new Jordan Davis release, "Mess."
Por Billboard | 21/10/2026
“Go ahead, leave me like the bed/ Make me a mess.” Making the bed, according to several websites devoted to healthy minds, is a great habit to start the day, since it promotes organization and gives the bedmaker the sense that their life is under control. Thus, the hook of Jordan Davis ’ “Mess” – with its reference to untucked and untidy sheets – serves as a metaphor for the protagonist’s addiction to a woman. He is, at the outset, on the rebound, proud that he’s getting his life back in order after their difficult relationship. But at the end of the first verse, he places a call, admitting in advance that he’s “10 kinds of crazy” for triggering an activity he knows will undo all of his progress and send him spiraling back into the emotional depths. He calls her anyway. “It’s a sad fella,” Davis says. “He needs more friends.” Davis conveyed to his musical friends a desire to take more chances as he prepped his next album, and they generally accommodated him. “If you’re staying the same, and you’re recording the same songs and writing the same songs, you’re not really growing,” says his brother, co-writer Jacob Davis (“Buy Dirt,” “Backseat Driver”). With that in mind, Jacob, Travis Wood (“I Ain’t Sayin’,” “Girl in Mine”) and Jordan’s longtime producer, Paul DiGiovanni (Luke Bryan, Alana Springsteen), met May 6 in the basement studio at Universal Music Publishing Nashville to work on “starts” – initial, incomplete song ideas. DiGiovanni’s experimentation with someone else’s guitar got things off the ground. “There’s this old Telecaster – I don’t know who owns it – in the basement of the Universal Studio,” he notes. “It’s like a parts caster – it’s just all these parts bolted together, basically, and it’s kind of trash, but kind of incredible. And I kind of want it.” He developed a pulsing feel with mostly minor chords and applied some atmospheric bends. They batted around potential one-word titles to pair with it – “Disaster” was among them – until Wood suggested “Mess,” which felt more singable. The opening verse established the character in a state of recovery – he’s stopped drinking, gotten clear-eyed and is sleeping well. It all sounds confident, though there’s something off-kilter about that stanza. It’s a big pile of words, and the syllables that are ideal for emphasis don’t line up with the melodic notes that get emphasized. That provides a bit of a clue, perhaps, that the guy isn’t totally in control post-relationship, and by the end of that verse, he’s calling for a hookup, knowing even as he places the call that he’s going to regret it. The chorus broke open with two major chords, and the two people fumbled their way down the hall in the story while the musical progression tumbled downward, along with the protagonist’s self-respect. The chorus closed with that boudoir metaphor: “Then go ahead, leave me like the bed/ Make me a mess.” “Through the chorus,” says Jacob, “you find out that heR