Restless Road ‘s HIGHLY anticipated debut album is finally out this coming Friday. But Joe, I hear you cry, these guys are signed to Sony/Nashville, how have you heard it already? Trust me, I was just as shocked as y’all are when I got the email through. Guess we’re going up in the world!

Somehow I’d never heard of this band before, even though they toured over here back at the start of the year with the amazing Kane Brown. They’ve even done a song with him, which I checked out when I got the email and is very good. So, ladies & gentlemen, I’m excited for this one (and I have to be nice so Sony sends me more albums). So, let’s dive in, shall we?

The title track opens with a great modern country riff, slow and catchy right out of the gate. The immediately incredible low vocals soon come in over the top, the harmonies somehow making them even better during the choruses. Speaking of the chorus, it’s massive and infectiously catchy. It’s exactly the sort of country that’s becoming massive these days, and it’s done to perfection. For some reason, I also hear just a tad bit of Nickelback in the melody, which is fine by me, adding a slight rock edge. We even get some teases of a guitar solo, though it never truly materialises. It’s a fantastic track, with my only slight complaint being the rather generic lyrics. Still, it easily makes our playlist!

‘Head over Heels’ picks up the pace a bit more, having more of a country rock feel. It’s got a bit of a Jason Aldeen or even Cadillac Three feel to it. Yet still, it has a massive, hugely, catchy stadium-filling chorus. The instrumentation was a bit more interesting here too. The fiddles in the back added a fun dynamic and second melody, while we also actually got a guitar solo in this one, and it was a pretty great one to boot! And, just to cap it all off, we get a phenomenal key change for the final chorus. I cannot get over how amazing this track is. Everything about it is awesome. Another on the playlist!

The album slows down with ‘Growing Old with You’, a beautiful ballad of a song. Honestly, it’s hard to say much about the track. It’s just a good, slower, pop-country song. The lyrics, while still not exactly original, were well written here and were delivered with genuine emotion. Yet another fantastic track.

‘Could Have Been a Love Song’ picks the pace back up again into an upbeat stomping rock number. It’s your typical breakup song from a lyrical standpoint, but a lot of fun. The instrumentation is again awesome, the subtle strings adding plenty on top of the drums and guitars. It reminds me a fair bit of Locash, it’s that kind of bouncy country anthem. It’s of course catchy and radio-friendly, yet still feels rather genuine, not forced. It’s another fun track.

Another country ballad is up next with ‘Roll Tide Roll’. It feels more stripped back than the former one, is revolving mainly around the acoustic guitar and the vocals. All the vocals work perfectly here too, especially when harmonising. The duel vocals works so well in country, and this definitely isn’t the exception. At this rate, I can’t see us having a bad track on this whole album…

Honestly, there isn’t a bad song on it, either. There are, however, simply too many songs. I’ve been pretty vocal in this opinion recently, but country albums are just too damn long. I completely get it from a marketing and from a corporate standpoint, but at very least from a review stance, slightly lesser from a listener one, it just feels bloated. Unless you’re an immensely talented prog band, 18 tracks means that a few of the songs are going to sound a little similar. And that’s what happens here. ‘Tell Me Not To’ is pretty damn similar to the opening track. ‘Go Get Her’ sounds like ‘Roll Tide Roll’ sounds like ‘You Don’t Have to Love Me’.

I’m not saying the tracks are bad, however. All of them are good. Some, like ‘Bar Friends’, ‘Easy for You to Say’ and ‘Leave Your Boots On’, are great and playlist worthy. And the duet with Erin Kinsey, ‘Most Nights’, is amazing and is going to be massive once the album is out. There truthfully isn’t a bad track on the album. All 18 tracks are great radio-country songs that are going to catapult this band into being even bigger than they already are. The album could have just quite easily been 12ish tracks and been even better, in this one writer’s humble opinion.

Overall: This is an amazing country album. I know full well it won’t be for everyone; the genre die-hards will claim it to be too pop and radio oriented. However, It’s full of amazingly written, fun, emotional tracks, with huge catchy choruses and plenty of harmonies. There isn’t a bad track on the album and Restless Road are going to be a HUGE name in country for years, maybe decades to come. Despite the length, I can’t not give it…

The Score: 9/10