Thomas Rhett – Country Again (Side A) (2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Thomas Rhett finds comfort in returning home in the new song “Country Again,” which is also the title track from his upcoming album. Side A of the two-part collection Country Again will be released April 30th.

Rhett wrote the song with Zach Crowell and Ashley Gorley and it features the 2021 ACM Entertainer of the Year nominee shifting direction away from the slick, cutting-edge productions of Center Point Road and Life Changes for more traditionally country instrumentation. Rumbling electric guitar is combined with some lead acoustic licks and fiddle, while Rhett sings with a hint of sadness about the feeling of having wandered so far from his roots.

“I spent way less time in Nashville/And more time in LA/My back home buddies they quit calling/Thought I had too much on my plate,” he sings. But he manages to reconcile with them, drink a few beers, and play Eric Church loud to restore that feeling of being in the place where he belongs.

“It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve written yet and honestly just feels full circle in so many ways… it’s about the crazy journey I’ve been on over the last decade and ultimately finding my way back home,” Rhett says in a release.

The very title “Country Again” suggests Thomas Rhett strayed from country music at some point. To an extent, that is true. Rhett scaled the upper reaches of Billboard’s Country charts in the 2010s, but his appeal was based on how he wasn’t a traditional country singer. He followed the path carved out by Sam Hunt, playing a slinky, digitally streamlined blend of pop, country, and R&B, a mixture that inherently pushed him to the pop side of the equation. Country Again — a two-part album delivered as two “sides”. Side A arrived in April 2021, and its flip is slated for release later in the year, and its intentions are to emphasize Rhett’s deep country roots, pushing the modern production into the background without quite removing it. Maybe Country Again (Side A) doesn’t glisten with a digital sheen so bright it shines, but it’s filled with easy-rolling melodies, steel guitars that give way to programmed beats, and vocal harmonies that are brick-walled with the acoustic guitars and synthesizer; it’s a contemporary country record by any measure. There’s nothing wrong with leaning toward the pop side of the equation — it’s served Rhett well through the years — but the problem with Country Again (Side A) is that it’s filled with desperate down-home signifiers, canned cornpone nostalgia, and name-dropping designed to convey authenticity. Rhett sings a lot about Eric Church on Country Again (Side A) and the cumulative effect is to drive home how effortless the Chief makes his blend of rock, country, and soul seem. Here, Rhett is straining to hit similar marks, all while wearing a cheerful grin, and it’s impossible to hear anything but how hard he’s working to sound country. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:

1. Thomas Rhett – Want It Again
2. Thomas Rhett – Growing Up
3. Thomas Rhett – What’s Your Country Song
4. Thomas Rhett – Where We Grew Up
5. Thomas Rhett – Heaven Right Now
6. Thomas Rhett – To The Guys That Date My Girls
7. Thomas Rhett – More Time Fishin’
8. Thomas Rhett – Country Again
9. Thomas Rhett – Put It On Ice
10. Thomas Rhett – Blame It On A Backroad
11. Thomas Rhett – Ya Heard

Download:

mqs.link_Th0masRhettC0untryAgainSideA20212448.rar

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