"Kiss Me When I'm Down" is a song written by Andrew Dorff, Josh Kear

Josh Kear

Joshua Peter "Josh" Kear is an American songwriter. His credits include Carrie Underwood's number-one "Before He Cheats," for which Kear won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 2007 and Lady Antebellum's number-one "Need You Now," for which Kear won an Academy of Country Music Award for Best...

, and Chris Tompkins

Chris Tompkins

Chris Tompkins is an American songwriter from Nashville, originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He won Music Row's 2007"Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year" award and was honored as the Alabama Music Hall of Fame songwriter of the year...

 and recorded by American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Gary Allan

Gary Allan

Gary Allan Herzberg is an American country music artist, known professionally as Gary Allan.Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his debut on the United States country music scene with the release of his single "Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album Used Heart for Sale,...

. It is the third single off his eighth studio album Get Off On The Pain

Get Off on the Pain

Upon its release, Get Off on the Pain received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84, based on 5 reviews, which indicates "universal...

.

Content

The song's narrator has just been left by his girlfriend. He searches the house to dig up poor excuses to call like a stack of mail, toothpaste, and empty CD cases. In the second verse he is on the phone having tracked her down in a bar. The contrast between his sitting home finding excuses to call and her laughing in a bar exemplifies his longing and desperation.

Critical reception

Stormy Lewis of Roughstock calls the song “Another brilliant song to add to the cannon of amazing Gary Allan singles,” and gave it a five out of five star rating. Jim Malec of American Noise says that the lyrics are “Great. Not good, great,” and says the song “Deserves every single bit of acclaim and attention it will receive,” and gives the song a thumbs up.

Chart performance

Chart (2010)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs	38