Thomas Rhett returns today with his new studio album ‘Country Again (Side A)’ that takes his music back to his roots. Listen to the album here.
Since his debut record – It Goes Like This – in 2013, Rhett’s star has been transcendent, picking up legions of fans and exploring the entire width of the country genre. Today, Thomas Rhett returns with his new record Country Again (Side A) that is arguably his best album to date – avoiding the trappings of saccharine ‘boyfriend country’ and instead returning country to its roots in authentic and honest songwriting. Across the course of the eleven tracks on the record, Rhett explores everything from fatherhood to honest living to love and heartbreak. For those who were disappointed by the more commercial and ‘basic’ songwriting on the lead-out single ‘What’s Your Country Song’ that track is not a representation of the record as a whole.
Sonically, you can hear this on the opening single ‘Want It Again’ where Rhett returns to a more stripped-back authentic sound, courtesy of producers Dan Huff and Jesse Frasure, here Rhett sings to an ex-lover about hoping that they’ll ‘want it again someday,’ singing ‘You moved on and so did I / But you dance around in the back of my mind.’ It’s bittersweet and poignant, Country Again‘s equivalent of ‘Marry Me.’ It’s this fearlessness to strip back the production more often on Country Again though that allows the record to breathe and make it more compelling. So, on final track ‘Ya Heard,’ Rhett sings about how far he has come in life – with his family and career, and on ‘Heaven Right Now’ – written with father Rhett Akins – Rhett powerfully sings about losing a friend. It’s deeply personal and emotional – where he has always excelled in his songwriting – singing about everything he misses about his friend as he muses on what they’re up to in heaven. ‘I still play this old guitar, but the crowds have gotten bigger / My kids have never met you, but they know you from pictures.‘ Stripping back the track allows Rhett’s vocal to reveal the depths of his emotion – you can hear the pain in his vocal and its immensely touching. Still, Frasure and Huff have created a varied sonic landscape, making it a majestic record in its entirety. On, ‘Growing Up,’ Rhett explores the experiences of age ‘Guess you get a little older, get a little wiser / A little more turn that cheek / Little less what I want, and more what I need these days, I / Still get a little crazy / In a lot of ways, I’m still the kid I was’ and a far more commercial and current sound is explored on the slightly jarring track ‘Put on Ice’ – a duet with HARDY. As a whole though, both the sequencing and the balance of the record are spot on, creating a sound that brings Rhett back to his roots without abandoning the sonic journey he has undergone to get to this album.
Elsewhere on the record, Rhett explores fatherhood in one of the most extraordinary tracks on the record – ‘To the Guys That Date My Girls’ – a deeply emotional and sentimental track as he sings to his daughters’ future boyfriends about treating his girls right. ‘When you take their hand / Remember you’re holding my whole world.’ The more traditional country infused production, complete with lap steel, is a stroke of genius, allowing the production to swell, ebb and flow with ease. This more traditional sound is brought in both sonically and lyrically, most obviously in the title track, where Rhett sings about it ‘feeling good to be country again’ and in the wildly popular and commercial ‘What’s Your Country Song’ about the music on which he was raised and that made him and on ‘Country Again,’ Rhett sings of returning to his roots. On this last, Rhett could be singing of the return to his traditional sound. ‘Yeah, I love me some California / But it sure ain’t Tennessee / And my roots down there in Georgia / Yeah, they started missin’ me.’ Later, he sings again of these Georgian roots on the stunning track ‘Where We Grew Up’ and on ‘More Time Fishin’ though infused with the kind of pop-infused production we found on Tangled Up, the core of the songwriting is still based in his pride in his roots and a joyful celebration of his country roots that is carried through into penultimate track ‘Blame It On a Backroad.’ Here, Rhett sings about losing himself to the music and the country. It’s a euphorically joyful track and is immensely fun, where Rhett is allowed to let loose.
Country Again (Side A) is the best record Thomas Rhett has made to this point in his career, showing an artist of depth and maturity. As ‘Growing Up’ says he has learned from his years of experience – creating a record that is poignant without being sentimental, sweet without being saccharine and traditional while still being unique. Bring on Side B.
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