Brett Eldredge is back with his new studio record – Sunday Drive – out today, that is a flawless, classy display of his sophisticated songwriting. We review the record and reveal our standout moments.
It has been 3 years since Brett Eldredge’s last studio album – his 2017 self-titled record that was jam-packed with hits, including ‘Love Someone’ and ‘The Long Way.’ Now, he returns with majestic, sophisticated Sunday Drive that is a flawless, poised display of how far he’s come in his artistry and songwriting craft.
It is not exactly a secret that Eldredge decided to go ‘off grid’ for the making of this record and the proof is here, for this record dives a layer deeper into his psyche, for a record full of wonder at the world, yearning and ultimate peace within himself. Indeed, Eldredge partnered up with Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk (the geniuses behind Golden Hour) for the project that shifts the sound of his music toward a more soft, crooning creation that feels like the record he was always destined to create.
The album opens with softly spoken ‘Where The Heart Is’ that was released alongside ‘Crowd My Mind’ and ‘Gabrielle’ when Eldredge announced the record back in April. Brett croons about losing self and wanting to find connection as he sings ‘Where’d you lose your sense of wonder / That firework going off in your head?’Â The track is more stripped back at the start, allowing Eldredge’s honeyed vocal to cut through the production, before glorious layers of strings and piano are added to make the track resonate.
‘The One You Need’ is another early standout moment from the record, with Eldredge sings to a lover about being their anchor and safe place. ‘Rest your head here / Pull me closer, I’ll hold you tight while you let girl / I could love you, if you’ll just let me be the one you need.’Â Again, Tashian and Fitchuk have allowed Eldredge’s voice to be the central focus of the record, with the production enhancing rather than detracting from it. The track is full of yearning and comfort. So later track, ‘Crowd My Mind’ is a similarly stripped back, stunning moment, with Eldredge singing about not being able to shake a former lover from his thoughts. ‘Been eight months since November, but you’re all I can remember… Empty streets and whistling pines, but not a day goes by that you don’t crowd my mind.’Â Glimmering piano and guitar frosts the track that is rammed with emotion. The result is something utterly special and glorious.
‘Magnolia’ amps up the tempo of the record and is rife with nostalgia, with Eldredge singing of his childhood ‘We danced beneath that magnolia,’ using the central analogy of a long-standing magnolia and his memories associated with it to sum up his memories. The track is more upbeat, swinging through with an ease and looseness that feels liberating and a step away from the bigger, measured production of ‘Love Someone’ toward a more jazz-inspired sound. Later track ‘Good Day’ that Eldredge sung on his UK tour is similarly free, infused with more ‘country’-sounding pedal steel elements, as he sings of hope ‘I got a feeling it’s gonna be a good day.’Â
‘Sunday Drive’ is the central jewel of the entire record. Found whilst he was an intern in the back catalogues at UMP, Eldredge kept hold of the track for this record. The track is utterly stunning, a narration of viewing the world from the backseat through watching his parents. ‘That’s where I learned it all from them / To fight, to love, to laugh again.’Â Completely poised and sophisticated, this track marks the fruition of the journey Eldredge has clearly undergone in the making of this record, rooting the record in his childhood roots and moving toward a sound that can not be defined by genre but that instead puts his voice and ideas at the fore.
More standout moments are provided in ‘Gabrielle,’ a track about mistiming with a lover. ‘Was it your heart or mine? / Was it just the wrong time, Gabrielle?’Â This is one of the ‘bigger’ moments on the record and was formidable in its live translation at Shepherd’s Bush, and sees Eldredge again re-examining his life and past, but not despondently rather peacefully.
The closing trio of tracks seem to cement Eldredge’s crooner status, and potentially opening the way for ‘big band’ performances. So, in ‘Fix a Heart,’ where Eldredge sings that ‘it takes a good woman to fix a heart,’Â the production is infused with a sultry trumpet-infused sound and final track ‘Paris, Illinois’ brings the record full circle back to his hometown. Full of nostalgia, the track, again infused with elements of brass, would fit in a 1920s playlist, full of class, crooning and a stunning end to this project.
When an artist goes away to reassess their life and dig deep, quite often the result is not really heard in the record, however, here in Brett Eldredge’s Sunday Drive this quest is ever present. Sonically, this is his best creation, but lyrically he has dived deeper, in his yearning for his home town, his memories of his childhood and his peace with relationships that were not meant to be. Brett Eldredge has always released good albums, but this album is sublime and demarcates a new era in his music and career.
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Editor’s Picks
The One You Need
Sunday Drive
Gabrielle
