Listening to this album after only hearing Friday Night on the radio all summer is a total shock. I expected Eric Paslay to offer us an album with tons of songs only attempting to hit the radio, and it's the absolute inverse. If you expect to have other songs like Friday Night, think again. This album goes far deeper, somewhere where we can deeply enjoy Eric's song-writing talent, and his musical creativity.
Like said previously, the outlier of this album is Friday Night surprisingly. I would have expected more radio-ready songs, and perhaps the lack of them is a bit disappointing. I'd say that if you are on the verge of buying this album, go check out the songs that are highly rated in my review to see if you like them, because they are a better indication of the style of the album, and one could be misguided by the second single of the artist (the first one being Never Really Wanted, that didn't chart that well). If you like those songs, you'll find a very diverse album, where dedication was put in every single song.
Eric Paslay is an incredible guitarist, and I think it's one of the reason this album is so diverse, especially for a first album by an up and coming artist. Most songs manage to be emotional, as well as upbeat at the same time, which is impressive. Moreover, there were no skimming in the lyrics' quality anywhere. To give an indication, Eric Paslay was the writer of Eli Young Band's Even If It Breaks Your Heart as well as Love and Theft's Angel Eyes, or Rascal Flatts' Rewind. Eric Paslay is an incredible song-writer, and it trickled down on this album. Overall, this album is absolutely great, and widely recommended.
9/10
Keep On Fallin
On the whole album, this is perhaps one of my favourite songs. Eric Paslay's voice is absolutely stellar, the lyrics are great, and the chorus is an absolute ear-worm. The guitar solo is also well placed.
8.5/10
Friday Night
This was the summer song for a lot of people, and despite being really commercial-focussed, the lyrics don't suffer that much. Yes we get the "open roads", "barefoot it the moonlight" kind of cheesy verses, but overall, it's really not too bad, and thought was definitely put into the song-writing. You can listen to that song 10 times in a row and never get tired of it. The musical arrangement can get repetitive though.
9/10
Less Than Whole
This is really a profound song, it's very emotional. The singing is stellar in this song, and it really sounds great. The subject of forgiveness is not one of the most popular subjects in country music, so I think it's great that Eric Paslay talks about it in this song. It's a genuinely good song.
8.5/10
County Side Of Heaven
One thing that strikes me the most with this album is that the songs that have really emotional lyrics don't lack rhythm like we've seen with other albums. Not to say that this song is upbeat, but it's not one of those emotional slow songs. I think Eric Paslay has found the recipe to make good emotional song. Country Side Of Heaven is definitely one, the song-writing is plainly excellent.
8/10
Never Really Wanted
This song was the first single of the album, but it didn't chart really high, up to the point where you most probably never heard it. It's well written, has a lot of rhythm and has this ear-worm factor to it. It can become repetitive though. The guitar solo also seems to come out of nowhere.
8/10
Here Comes Love
Surprise bluegrass-sounding song! This song is extremely enjoyable. We can see that Eric Paslay tries a lot of things in this album, and the diversity of it for a first album is absolutely astonishing. I think the subject of the song really fits well with the tempo of the song, it's really upbeat and genuinely fun.
8/10
Like A Song
I wasn't a big fan of this song. While I appreciate that Eric Paslay tempted his luck going on the "rock" side of the spectrum, I don't think it fits him so well. It just sounds odd, at least to me. The song is also quite repetitive.
6.5/10
Good with Wine
We needed a "we are in love" slow song on this album, so there it goes. The song is really well-written, and calling it slow is kind of an overstatement, since it really has changes in tempo from being slower, to being more upbeat.
8/10
She Don't Love You
This is the only genuinely slow song of the album. The lyrics are great, the singing is too, but I felt like it was just an obligation to have such a song on the album, more than something Eric Paslay really wanted. It really clashes of the rest of the album for the lack of tempo of it. It doesn't fit the rest of the album so well.
7/10
Song About A Girl
The guitar beat in this song really makes it great. The constant rhythm going on makes it upbeat and enjoyable. The song is also well-written, and it has a lot of emotion to it. Really one of my favourite songs. As I write this review, this song is also a new single that was released, and I have no indication of how well it will chart. I really hope it does well.
9/10
Deep as It is Wide
Ironically (or not), I think the title of this song sums up the album pretty well. The album is really diverse, and no song lack work in the lyrics. This song is no exception, and the changes of tempo make it absolutely great. It also got a lot of emotion in it.
8.5/10
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