Eight years to be exact, and at the end of those eight years they’ve created a refined and familiar, yet refreshing and innovative new record.
On first listen, the album appears to be all about optimism and cheery fast-paced tempos – the kind of album you’d expect as the soundtrack to a romantic comedy. However, the pair have quite brilliantly laid down a series of incredibly thoughtful and provoking tracks in amongst their token pop-country classics.
‘Bird In A Cage’ and ‘Love Me Like I’m Leaving’ will bring you back to reality with an all too relatable melancholy. But look out for the stomach-punching, tear-jerking moment in one of the final tracks, ‘Tuesday’s Broken’. Sugarland tackle a lot in one song, though it’s Jennifer Nettles’ raw but controlled vocals that really make this one such a standout.
This record might sound like more of the same for Sugarland, but it’s a classic sound that has stood the test of time. It still has listeners itching to sing along to brand new lyrics they don’t even know yet.
6.5/10
