One of the biggest names in country right now, Parmalee, are set to release their highly anticipated new album on Friday. It’s just seven-tracks long, part one of a set of two. Then again, the band are hardly strangers to ‘double albums’, with For You being re-released as For You 2 with aditional tracks, too! However, I imagine this will be part one of two completely different song collections. I’m personally a pretty big fan of the band, at least since their last album, so when we got sent this through early there was no way I wasn’t checking it out and letting y’all know what I thought! Check out all of my gushing over it below!
The first song we checked out, ‘Cowgirl’, sets the tone for the pop-country sound of the release perfectly. A simple acoustic guitar chord progression gives way to some super smooth, instantly catchy vocals from Matt Thomas. It’s exactly what I expected from the band, and it’s a lot of fun! It all builds up to a massive, stadium-filling chorus, filled with catchy melodies and great backing vocals/harmonies. It fits perfectly in with the current country scene, as well as their previous work before this, and it’s hard not to compare to the likes of Florida Georgia Line or Russel Dickerson. It’s a simple, infectiously catchy track that was a very good choice for a lead single. It’s the first to easily sneak onto our playlist!
‘Day One’ continues the same vibe as the opener, yet is somehow even more catchy and smooth-vocalled. It’s honestly like velvet; Matt is easily one of the most underrated vocalists and frontmen around currently. It’s a little simpler a track, there not being much of a difference instrumentally or size-wise between the verse and chorus, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. There’s a great, chilled-out flow through the whole track that I LOVED. Heck, we even get a fun little guitar lead line tucked away in the middle, and then a drop-down chorus before exploding into the massive final one,the dynamics of the tracks second half keeping it interesting. It’s another great track, and another easy highlight of the album!
‘Beautiful’ slows things down into an acoustic ballad. It somehow feels a little bigger in the first chorus too, despite really adding much other instrumentation aside for another guitar and some simple drums. The instruments keep building in perfectly in through the second verse, reaching it’s fantastic crescendo in the final chorus and sounding absolutely HUGE. For some reason it gives me slight Jonas Brothers vibes, but I think it’s more because it’s that kind of era that it’s going for, sound-wise. It’s very fitting of its song title, and it’s a very good love song! And so far the band are three for three with great songs on the album, and this is another easily playlisted track!
‘Miss Me When You’re Drinking’ is another slower, acoustic-led song. It’s pretty similar to the previous song, yet somehow even catchier. The vocal melodies and lyrics throughout are gonna be stuck my head for days to come, I’m sure. It’s an incredibly well-crafted song, and another that’s going to do incredibly well on radio airwaves. It’s simple, chilled, easy to sing-along to and incredibly catchy, a combination that Parmalee seem to be able to nail every single time these days. It’s another big highlight on an album full of them!
The final three tracks are more of what you’d expect. ‘God Knew Better’ is your typical early 2010’s radio-country banger, and done to perfection. Meanwhile ‘Enough’ is a bit more modern and upbeat, again giving off slight Jonas vibes. Yet, it’s still another banger, and hugely catchy in its pop-heavy chorus. Then the final song is another acoustic-lead song, though it has a bit of higher tempo to it, almost have a vague punk-edge at times. All three songs are amazing on their own right. The only reason I clumped them up is because I can’t be only gush like a fangirl for so long, and felt like I was repeating myself over and over by this point. If you’re a fan of the band or genre, you’d not go wrong checking out any of these songs!
Overall: This is an awesome short release! It’s nice to have a country album of digestible length in 2025, and it has most certainly gotten me hyped for a follow-up part later in the year. Heck, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it may have even been too short! Every track was awesome in its own merit, and the whole album had a fantastic flow to it. Parmalee really are at the very top of their game currently, and this album really shows why they are towards the top of the country world. I can’t recommend this enough to any modern country fans out there, and now I just hope part two can live up to the insane hype I’m going to end up putting on it…
The Score: 9/10