For the first time in their career, Rascal Flatts was at a musical crossroads. They could’ve continued their massively successful run with Dann Huff or they could work on new music with someone different. This change was required to the trio of Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney’s previous album Changed ‘underperforming’ their previous albums high expectations of Platinum or better sales (it still surpassed Gold, or 500,000 copies sold). So rather than work exclusively with Huff, the group worked with DeMarcus helming most of Rewind and noted Rock/Pop producer Howard Benson producing six of the album’s 13 tracks. Huff, for his part, is behind the boards for the track “Life’s A Song.”
Benson’s presence is immediately felt on future single and album opener “Payback.” The guitars are more ‘rock’ than anything Rascal Flatts has done while the harmony vocals and chorus fit the rockin’ attitude. The title track is currently a big hit for the group and hit 500k downloads this week. One of the seven tracks produced by DeMarcus, “Rewind” is also mostly different for Rascal Flatts. The track worked to give Rascal Flatts a perfect bridge between their previous country/pop to the sound of the songs throughout the rest of Rewind, a thoroughly contemporary record.
The songwriter responsible for “Bless The Broken Road,” Marcus Hummon, co-wrote another potential huge hit, “I Have Never Been To Memphis,” with Delta Rae band members (and brothers) Eric Holljes and Ian Holljes. It’s a subdued vocal performance from Gary LeVox, where I personally feel he sounds the best, and the song may be the closest to the classic Rascal Flatts type of song out of anything on Rewind. The trio of Meghan Trainor, Jesse Frasure and Dan+Shay’s Shay Mooney co-wrote “DJ Tonight” and “I Like The Sound Of That” and they both have a contemporary, 2010s mainstream sound.
One of the strongest aspects of Rewind is that Rascal Flatts didn’t just cut songs from the same five songwriters who were scoring hits in 2014, they dug deep and found writers like Gregg Wattenberg, Jesse Frasure, Sara Haze, Aaron Eshuris and The Holljes brothers, to name but a few. The melodies are pretty diverse, the production is crisp and Gary LeVox is mostly subdued vocally, not getting to ‘powerful’ with his vocals. While he’s a strong vocalist, performing in his highest register all of the time certainly makes it hard for him come the live shows (even Martina McBride limits how much she’s in the power range). “Aftermath” is a perfect example of this, a song where Howard Benson seems to have reined-in LeVox and allowed him to sing falsetto in parts and it’s a song that could crossover to the Pop or AC charts if released as a single. It’s a pretty ballad.
Sean McConnell and the Swedish team behind the band’s hit “Come Wake Me Up” co-wrote “I’m On Fire,” a moody, mid-tempo while Jeffrey Steele (one of the more noticeable songwriters on the project and a frequent Rascal Flatts writer) co-wrote the beautiful “Life’s A Song” with Brandon Hood and James Slater and it’s got a southern gospel melody brooding underneath a nice percussive backbeat (and is the lone song produced by Dann Huff on the record). Rascal Flatts have often placed some of their album’s best songs as the closing tracks to their records and “The Mechanic” fits this trend as the ballad (a Tony Lane co-write with Jaren Johnston), is minor key, harmonic and just romantic and the metaphor for what love means to the narrator, she’s his mechanic, is a nice, new change.
Kudos should go to Rascal Flatts for stretching their wings with Rewind. While the trio’s trademark ballads are still here, they also show a little more rock in their roll a little with more spring in their step and that makes Rewind the best of the trio’s three albums they’ve recorded under the Big Machine Records banner (after first label Lyric Street Records closed in 2009). If there's anything more to say about the record it is that perhaps the trio doesn't need Howard Benson or Dann Huff to make records when they have Jay DeMarcus, who helmed most of this record's production duties (including the hit lead single "Rewind").
Note: The Deluxe version contains 4 bonus songs. It's available only at Target (See alternate cover image below).
0 Comments