Learning How to Bend

"Learning How to Bend" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Gary Allan. It was released in March 2008 as the second single from his 2007 album Living Hard. The song peaked at number 13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Allan wrote the song with James LeBlanc and Matt Warren.

"Learning How to Bend"
Single by Gary Allan
from the album Living Hard
ReleasedMarch 17, 2008
Recorded2007
GenreCountry
Length3:27
LabelMCA Nashville
Songwriter(s)Gary Allan, James LeBlanc, Matt Warren
Producer(s)Mark Wright, Gary Allan
Gary Allan singles chronology
"Watching Airplanes"
(2007)		 "Learning How to Bend"
(2008)		 "She's So California"
(2008)

Critical reception

Thom Jurek of Allmusic thought that the song had better production than the others on the album, saying, "With the echo effects on the vocal and the big strings at the same volume as those ringing, jangling guitars, [the musicians] can't miss."[1]

Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine also made note of Allan's "effective falsetto."[2]

Leeann Ward of CountryUniverse.net gave it an A rating, citing Allan's "raw and powerful delivery" and his use of falsetto in the chorus, as well as the "interesting production."[3]

Music video

The music video was shot in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and at live performances, and was directed by Stephen Shephard, who also directed his previous music video "Watching Airplanes" in 2007.

Chart performance

"Learning How to Bend" debuted at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated April 5, 2008.

Chart (2008) Peak
position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[4] 13
US Billboard Hot 100[5] 96
gollark: Some of them are just weird for reasons other than that, though.
gollark: 4703 somehow *does things* just because the law says it can, even though the law is just a human concept and only affects what humans do.
gollark: Really, one of the main things which makes (some) SCPs weird is that they take convenient abstractions/concepts and turn them into immutable physical laws, while our real universe just runs on... well, physics. 173 is affected by line of sight, even though this is just a thing humans do to reason about... looking at things. 005 is just a magic item which unlocks things, 048 is just a label we assign to things which somehow affects them.
gollark: Alternatively, the machine breaks, if it prefers simple changes - so I guess make it STUPIDLY redundant.
gollark: * didn't happen

References
  1. Jurek, Thom. "Living Hard review". Allmusic. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  2. Keefe, Jonathan. "Gary Allan: Living Hard". Slant Magazine. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  3. http://www.countryuniverse.net/2008/03/04/review-gary-allan-learning-how-to-bend/
  4. "Gary Allan Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  5. "Gary Allan Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
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