The incredible country-rock legend Kip Moore is set to put out his seventh studio album this coming Friday. It is no secret that we are big fans of his here at Overtone, loving Solitary Tracks and even getting to see him live last year! So, to say we’ve been hyped since this album was announced may be an understatement! And, what’s better, it’s a touch shorter than his last too, making it a lil easier to write about… So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
Opener ‘Levee’ is a track we are already very familiar with. It’s an awesome song, and the fact that it’s the first track is honestly a great idea. It’s high energy; a real country/old-school rock track, and has been in my regular rotation since to dropped back in March. I can’t gush over it much more than I already have, but having such an up-beat, amazing song open the album sets the tone for the rest of it perfectly!
‘Get What You Give’ keeps the rockin’ vibes going, having an almost 70s, Quo riff running through it! Kip’s vocals fit perfectly over the top of it, and the way the instrumentation builds up through the verse is amazing. It explodes into a massive chorus, one designed to be played to huge festival crowds around the world! It fits perfectly in with his particular brand of country-mixed-rock, and is an easy addition towards the top of his massive catalogue of hits. It’s bound to go down a storm live, too! We even get an awesome couple of duelling guitar solos in this, not cutting them off and giving them plenty of time to breath, packed full of feeling. It’s the perfect Kip Moore track, and another big early highlight!
New single ‘The Darkness’ slows things down perfectly. A steady bass drum beat and a fantastic acoustic guitar riff opens things up, Kip’s powerful, gritty vocals soon slotting in perfectly over the top. It all builds to a fantastic, emotion-filled chorus, one that feels ripped straight from Solitary Tracks or SLOWHEART in the best ways! And it’s catchy as anything too, it’s definitely going to be stuck in my head for days to come. It probably helps that it’s painfully relatable at the same time, too. It’s a simply built track, but a fantastic choice for a single and the perfect way to break up the pace of the album after a couple of faster numbers. Three for three so far on incredible songs!
‘Heartbreaker’ picks the tempo back up, heading firmly into southern rock territory. The slide guitar was a nice touch, and the dynamics of it dropping down for the verses only to explode into the massive chorus again serves the track well. Said chorus is another huge earworm, and one that is bound to go down a storm live! It’s another track that gets a great extended guitar solo, the instrumentation being a massive and welcome focus of the album. The whole track is classic Kip Moore, and is another track that easily makes it onto our playlist. Amazing stuff!
Tracks like ‘Headlights’, ‘You & Me’ and the title track are more slower, soft-rock epics. All are incredible and again feel so very Kip Moore, fitting in perfectly with the rest of his back catalogue. The former builds perfectly into the choruses, a real country rock anthem. Meanwhile ‘You & Me’, while a little higher tempo, still has a ballad feel to it, and has once again one of my favourite choruses on the album! Then you have the slow, grandiose title track, the steadiest we’ve covered so far, but Kip does it such a way that it doesn’t get boring or long-winded having a few slower songs in a row. Heck, we also have the final single, ‘Faith in the Wind’, nestled in the middle…
Said track is feels like the big, emotional heart of the album. It’s a stripped-back, acoustic-driven song, and is honestly so beautiful! That chorus alone is amazing, especially with the double-layered vocals. I love the choruses getting bigger each time too, the production of the track doing a fantastic job. It’s once again so very Kip in all the best ways, feeling like a culmination of his previous slower sounds into this one, epic moment. What a shock, another highlight, on an album packed full of them!
‘Lonely Tonight’ reminds me of Billy Joel, opening on the piano and vocals and building in more and more as it goes. Much like other tracks on the album, it all leads perfectly to the massive, arena-filling chorus. It’s a rather understated chorus compared to others on the release, but is no less catchy and memorable. While it does feel ever so slightly ‘album track’, on an album this good that is hardly a complaint!
‘Long Time Coming’ is another slower track, a fully-country acoustic ballad. It’s the simplest arrangement, mainly just the one guitar and vocals, a few other strings and swells coming in sporadically throughout. There are some subtle harmony vocals at times too, and I’d be curious to know if it’s the same woman who is on ‘Levee’. It’s also somehow another song that breaks up the album a little, as although the last few have been slower, this is a lot less grandiose and layered, and feels like something completely different again. And, once again, the lyrics are utterly phenomenal. A truly beautiful, excellent song!
A similar vibe runs though ‘Wild Things Like You’, while the pace picks back up into a rock banger for ‘Sober’. It did feel a little “about time” after a few slower songs in a row, but honestly it barely felt like it dragged even a little! It still very much has a country edge to it too, almost an early 2000s radio hit vibe to it, while still fitting perfectly with the rest of the tracks. And it’s still a massive, stadium-rock chorus, and another that will go over a treat live. I almost feel sick of saying it, but it’s yet another incredible song, and big highlight!
The closing track, ‘Josephine’, feels like an amalgamation of everything before it! While acoustic-based, it still has a bit of a big band feel to it, and a slightly higher tempo too. The closest comparison I can make is something like Darius Rucker, which is never a bad thing! It feels like a beautiful way to draw everything from the album together and close it out, while also being a great song in its own right. A fantastic end to a fantastic album!
Overall: Hot damn, Kip knocked it out of the park again with this album! As much as I loved Solitary Tracks, which is a lot, I may love this even more! Almost every track on it is absolutely incredible, and there really isn’t a bad song throughout. I’d honestly put it up there alongside his very best, as far as albums are concerned. Kip is somehow still at the top of his game, some 14+ years into releasing music, and this album very much shows that. He is one of my favourite artists for a reason, and I cannot recommend this release enough to absolutely anyone!
The Score: 9.5/10