Starting Over – Chris Stapleton‘s fourth studio album – is out on the 13th November. Here we review the new record and reveal why we think this is classic Chris Stapleton brought up to an even higher level and reveal our standout tracks from the hotly anticipated record.
Chris Stapleton’s first studio album – Traveller – caused a notable shift in the landscape of country music, injecting a return to traditional storytelling and songwriting. His follow-up records, From a Room Volume I and II were no less stellar, resulting in the ascendancy to a star. Now, Stapleton returns with his fourth studio album Starting Over that again taps into some hard truths and convictions that are laid bare in his songwriting.
In ‘Starting Over’ – the opening and title track on the record – Stapleton opines about wanting to take his chances with his wife and start over. ‘Some day we’ll look back and smile and know it was worth every mile.’
There’s more of a hard-edged, rock note to this record that stops it from stepping into saccharine territory. ‘Arkansas’ is a grooving, Southern rock track, a movement away from those we have come to expect from Stapleton. ‘Got to get down to Arkansas, having so much fun it was probably a little bit ‘gainst the law.’ Later track, ‘Hillbilly Blood’ similarly buzzes with energy and ‘Watch You Burn’ offers a blistering invective directed against the Las Vegas shooter.
‘Cold’ – ‘Why you got to be so cold? / Why you got to go and cut me like a knife, put our love on ice?’ strings make this intensely moving and emotional. The magic of Stapleton’s raw vocal is that he can make even such a well-trodden idea like love spurned seem wholly original and revelatory, almost conveying more with the raw, unbridled pain in his vocal than in the lyrics themselves. So too, in the quietly meditative ‘Old Friends’ ‘Old friends shine like diamonds, old friends you can always call,’ his vocal allows the track to ring almost plaintively melancholic rather than saccharine. It’s a stunningly sweet track where Morgane’s harmonies ring purely with Chris’ accompanied by a very simple, singing guitar accompaniment.
There’s a lot more love packed into this record. ‘When I’m With You’ is a joyfully, meandering track about his gratitude for finding his love. ‘I feel like a dreamer who’s had all his dreams come true…. When I’m With You.’ Morgane’s harmonies that lace throughout the track underline the authenticity of the sentiment and bring it to life yet further. Such is the case too in the quietly joyful cover of John Fogerty’s ‘Joy of My Life’ that is gracefully relaxed and meaningful.
There are definitely more commercial moments in the record than have been present in Stapleton’s previous two records, so ‘Worry B Gone’ is a storming and pacy track with an almost Beatles-esque swinging instrumentation and in plaintive ‘You Should Probably Leave’ – a track about knowing how each other feels, but knowing it’s not right, both wanting to stay but knowing they should go their separate ways. ‘I know you and you know me, we both know where this is gonna lead.’
Perhaps the most curious lyrical moment is offered on final track – ‘Nashville’ – that reads as a love letter to the city while bidding goodbye ‘Nashville, Tennessee you can have what’s left of me and as far as I can tell, it’s about time I wish you well / You build up, you set me free… so long Nashville, Tennessee’ The track is stunning – a quietly meditative, singing lap steel, magical, ethereal soundtrack, but leaves the listener wondering what is next for Stapleton.
The magic of Chris Stapleton’s records has always been in their ability to capture so much in their stripped-back, unfussy arrangements that allow the focus to remain – rightfully – on his uniquely raw and beautiful vocal. He carries on that tradition throughout this wistful, melancholic yet hopeful record that does not step a foot wrong. There has always been magic in Stapleton but here it is brought up a notch.
Editor’s Picks
Starting Over
Cold
You Should Probably Leave
