Dustin Lynch is back tomorrow with his fifth studio album – Blue In The Sky – that once again charts his own unique path in the country genre. Featuring his hit single ‘Thinking ‘Bout You (feat. MacKenzie Porter),’ it’s a record brimming with potential future number ones, continuing to solidify Lynch’s place on Music Row.
Since Dustin Lynch established his sound on his self-titled album back in 2012, he has largely not deviated far from that path. His sound that infuses traditional, hip hop and pop-country elements delivered in his honeyed and unique tone has struck gold, with a legion of number one hits and widespread success across the board. Now, Lynch is back with his fifth studio album – Blue in the Sky – that, whilst not breaking any boundaries or deviating from the path that Lynch has laid out, still is a solid and commercial record, filled with a series of potential number one hits.
Do not be put off by the title of the first track – ‘Party Mode’ – there is more to this album than just that. Still, a large part of the record is filled with sandy, island summer anthems from the initial track ‘Party Mode’ (that is actually not as banal as the title allows) to his collaboration with Chris Lane ‘Tequila on a Boat.’ … These are brought to a climax on later track ‘Summer Never Ended’ that is nothing unique but is a fairly solid summery road trip anthem. ‘I’d be alright if summer never ended / And these long nights kept on coming / Me and you burning hot every minute.’
There are a lot of tracks that sing about enjoying the quieter moments with a lover. ‘Back Road TN’ is one of those moments as Lynch sings about foregoing the ‘peaches of Georgia’ for his love in Tennessee. ‘Colorado will get you high / But I’ve got one arm wrapped round / The prettiest thing I’ve ever seen right here / in this Detroit-made Chevrolet / in Back Road Tennessee.’ There’s a lot on the record too that brims with nostalgia (‘Stars Like Confetti’). ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’ is doubtless the best of the three collaborations on the record and has quite rightly spent six weeks on the number one spot, as the pair sing back and forth about rekindling an old romance.
Two of the stand-out moments on the record come on the final tracks on the project – ‘Pasadena’ and ‘Not Every Cowboy.’ The first is a laid-back, fiddle-infused nostalgic track about a brief love that is brought to life with the light touch of Sarah Buxton’s backing vocals that lifts the tracks. It is country music at its finest but brought into 2022 and it is perfectly executed. This before diving into the most traditional country song on the project, where Lynch pleads with a lover that he isn’t like every other cowboy. ‘‘Cause I ain’t a silhouette Stetson, heading out west / In a red sunset, and taking your heart with me / So let me show you that not every cowboy leaves.’ Presented in Lynch’s modern country sound, it is a beautiful and poised track that shows Lynch’s growth since his debut album. Though there are many tracks that are not worthy of mention – from the disrespectful ‘Huntin’ Land’ to the unmemorable ‘Somethin’ That Makes You Smile,’ still there are tracks here that show Lynch’s growing maturity as an artist and human and it is this that gives Blue in the Sky its edge.
