Feels Like Carolina is Parmalee's fourth album already, and is the first one under their new label. The quality of this album is really impressive, and make them jump from a mostly unknown band to a band who can release diverse and well-crafted albums and songs. Even though the music and lyrics' complexity can feel inconsistent at moments, genuine effort was put in the album to make it great and make it sound different from the rest of the pack, and all I can say is that it's mission accomplished, and that Parmalee seems to have identified correctly what niche they want and are able to fill.
The closest thing that comes to mind as a whole to compare Parmalee is Eric Church. He's the one that does the most consistently high quality rock-country out there, and I wouldn't be surprised if Parmalee crafted Feels Like Carolina on the basis of Church's latest album, Chief. While Parmalee breaks totally with their rock past at some points, like in Day Drinkin', it comes back strongly in others, such as Move. As a whole, I'd be willing to say that they do a pretty good job going back and forth between country and rock, but sometimes they sort of cross the line and some songs are really out of what you can describe as country, which in my mind hurts the album. I genuinely love diversity in an album, I really love having something that surprises me, but not too often, and certainly not 3-4 times like it has been the case with Feels Like Carolina. I want to say that Feels Like Carolina being in a way their breakthrough album, it can be forgiven, they could really benefit for their next one in staying a bit more in the country genre, and trying different stuff from there, like they did for Day Drinkin'. Brad Paisley's Wheelhouse is most probably the latest album that goes a bit everywhere and does a great job at it that comes to everyone's mind first.
If we look at the best songs on Feels Like Carolina, they were all written in part or totally by the group members. The guys can compose great songs, it would be really a plus if they simply stuck to their guns and composed every single song they make. Some songs felt like a let down from the rest of the album, and a lack of effort on their part. As a mostly unknown group trying to become widely known, I'm not sure they can afford that. Same goes for the music. Some songs were great, some would have deserved more work on them, Think You Oughta Know That is the one that comes to my mind the quicker. It seems really easy to stick with mostly generic instrumentation and uncreative composition.
As a whole, this is a very high quality album. Most songs really sounded incredible, and most of them were also well-written, particularly in comparison to the pale quality of what we got served lately. This is their breakthrough album, at least in my mind, and it deserves attention because it can offer their growing fanbase good music that sounds totally different from the rest of the pack.
8.5/10
PS: Thanks to Parmalee, you can all enjoy a video for every single song or so to see how it sounds!
Musta Had A Good Time
Even though the song-writing display pretty simplistic subjects like we are used to on the radio (the whole party, beer and else kind of thing), the music is really different and more rock than what we get elsewhere. Pretty good song as a whole. It hit the radio, but not for long. I'd say that Close Your Eyes for This should have been the first single.
7.5/10
Day Drinkin'
This song is really similar as what you'd get on some songs of Zac Brown Band. It's really a vacation song, reminds me a bit of "Where The Boat Leaves From" by ZBB. Pretty good song, and clearly indicates diversity in the whole album. The lyrics quickly become repetitive though.
7.5/10
Move
This is a lot too rock for me to like the song. The lyrics aren't that impressive either. I really wasn't fan of the chorus
Yeah, kick back, oh, one hand on the wheel. Give it a little bit of juice. Life going by so slow and easy. Don't that just make you want to move?It just sounds off for a country song.
4.5/10
Close Your Eyes for This
This sounds exactly like something you will hear on the radio: good beat, the whole "we are young and in love" theme going on, etc.. To be quite fair, I'm surprised it didn't hit the radio, because it does the job pretty well. The music adds up really well, and simply sounds good. It also has that ear-worm factor to it.
8.5/10
Dance
This song is also filled with clichés, the song-writing is really off. To add to the pain, the music is generic, repetitive and doesn't suit perfectly to those lyrics. Good try, but poor results.
5/10
Carolina
You've heard this song a gazillion times before on the radio most probably, and I'd be genuinely surprised if you haven't been humming it at some point last spring or summer. The song is pretty great to be honest, it's well-written, sounds really well. It really does everything great. I have to give credit where it's deserved.
9.5/10
Think You Oughta Know That
The song is incredibly well-written, perhaps displaying the best lyrics of the whole album. Sadly, Parmalee didn't put enough effort of making the song something truly incredible, and the music is repetitive and doesn't quite hold up to the lyrics, which is a shame in my opinion. It could have been truly an amazing song if they had been a bit more creative on the instrumentation instead of going in the easy rockish kind of music. Good song anyways, but it could have been a whole lot better. Just thinking of Come Back To Me by Keith Urban, which fall in the same genre of well-written sad song.
8/10
Back In The Day
I want to say that the lyrics are "allright" because even though they are depicting the whole "what we did when we were young" subject, which has been done over and over again, they are a bit more creative about it than what is done usually. The music is again repetitive though.
7/10
My Montgomery
This is another song on this album that transpires a whole too much their rock past. It doesn't even try to sound country at this point. Quite disappointing to be honest.
5/10
Already Callin' You Mine
Pretty generic lyrics, pretty generic and repetitive composition as well. A try-hard song by Parmalee aiming only at hitting the radio. We'll see if it succeeds, but I'd be genuinely surprised, it's not good enough.
6.5/10
I'll Bring The Music
5.5/10
Another Day Gone
This song is pretty well-written as a whole, and feels like a good conclusion to the album. The guitar is pretty impressive, and fits the song really well for once.
8/10
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