Nothing Flatt about these Rascals

Rascal Flatts first appeared on the country music scene in 2000 with an appealing blend of harmony and melody. Some were quick to write off the trio of Joe Don Rooney and cousins Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus as nothing but country music’s answer to pop music’s boy band trend. However the boys in the band quickly dispelled that notion for they not only sang the songs but played the instruments and also wrote some of the tracks too. The first CD featured 4 smash hits including a career defining hit: “I’m Movin’ On.” if that song defined the band then the sophomore CD release “Melt” certainly proved that Rascal Flatts were here to stay. It featured 4 more hits including the band’s first two number one hits in “These Days” and “Mayberry.”

All of this leads me to the new Rascal Flatts album and single ”Feels Like Today.” While each CD has showcased a talented band, Feels Like Today” sounds like the work of a band that knows what they and their fans (predominantly female) want. As a sucker for harmony driven vocal groups, I can look past the glammed up cover and just get to the music. And what a good time it is too for the CD features 12 songs (one which is “hidden” at the end, more on that later) that find Rascal Flatts mining the same territory that their first two CDs did.

The confident love ballad “Where You Are” opens up the record. The hook lyric goes like this: “You’re a waterfall, Washin’ Over Me, I’m a thirsty man, let me drink you in…” This song’s lyric is so visual that it could literally melt many female’s hearts. The trio sings it well and the instrumentation is just country enough to justify the band being in the genre.

One of my all time favorite songs comes next: “Bless The Broken Road.” I first heard the Marcus Hummon/Bobby Boyd/Jeff Hanna (of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) song off of Marcus’ gem of a CD (“All In Good Time”) from 1996. It next appeared on a CD by singer Melodie Crittenden as “Broken Road” and it was a marginal hit for her. The song simply is a romantic song that finds the man truly happy to be where he is right now, despite the rough path to meeting the love of his life. Basically, this one is just Gary LeVox singing solo with the other two members supporting him on instruments. It’s a beautiful, perfect little song that will be a big hit for the band. I suspect it’ll be a wedding anthem for many years to come.
“Every long lost dream,
Led me to where you are,
Others that broke my heart,
They were like northern stars pointing me
On my way to your loving arms,
This much I know is true,
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you”

Hit songwriters Steve Robson and Jeffrey Steele wrote “How I Did” (they also wrote “These Days” for the band). It’s a typical midtempo track for the trio and leads into the Robson/Wayne Hector penned title track. “Feels Like Today” is an uplifting love song with a theme much like “broken road.” With a bass line and melody straight out of the 80’s pop/rock songbook, “Fast Cars and Freedom” gives the record a different sound yet still the song is about RF’s favorite subject: love, this time, everlasting love.

It seems like virtually every country record has to have a “live for today” kind of song on it nowadays. “When The Sand Runs Out” is the RF entry into that sub-genre: “I’m gonna stop lookin’ back, start movin’ on, and learn how to face my fears,
love with all of my heart, and make my mark I wanna leave somethin’ Here,
Go out on a ledge without any net, that’s what I’m gonna be about, yeah,
I wanna be runnin’ when the sand runs out.” For anyone who’s felt like they’ve been “spinning their wheels,” this one should help you to “put the car in drive.”

After an obligatory love/thank you letter song to their fans, “ Here’s To You,” comes “The Day Before You.” Christian artist Matthew West is the sole writer on the song and it sounds like it. It’s still a country song and is done quite well. But the song still has a soaring CCM vibe to it, the lyric could be about God or a girl, just how the band and West want it. This one could be a single, especially with lyrics like this: “Now you’re here,
and everything’s changing,
Suddenly life means so much,
I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow
And find out this promise is true,
I will never have to go back to,
The day before you”

The next track, “Break Away” is co-written by Joe Don Rooney and it’s one of the best tracks on the CD. There’s banjo and fiddle are more prominent on this track than any other track on the record and the lyric and melody are memorable if only for their summertime, drivin’ vibe. It has a strong chance to be a single. “Holes” discusses what it’s like to go through a bitter break up and how one feels when the whole relationship has ended.

“Oklahoma-Texas Line is a nice ode to the guys’ life prior to being singers (they wrote it together). About a minute after the song ends a beautiful “Movin On” kind of ballad comes on. Written about a teenaged cancer patient, the song, Doug Johnson’s “Skin,” goes through the emotional steps from finding out, to learning what to do, to chemo, to going to prom to anxiety about how no one will take her to prom. Her boyfriend not only does that but he does one other special thing…he shaves his head so they look the same. It leaves impact and may just have to be placed at the end of the CD as a regular track. Radio is already playing it w/o it being a single. It could be a huge hit. It’s definitely emotional.

Rascal Flatts aren’t reinventing the wheel by any means. Basically they’re doing what they do best while selling oodles of CD’s doing it. They stay consistent which is all any country fan could possibly ask for…

On a side note, There are (currently) 4 different versions of this CD available. Wal-Mart has a 2 bonus “rare demo” tracks on it while Target and Best Buy have single “rare demo” tracks that are different from the Wal-mart versions. There’s also the regular CD chronicled here. While a tad confusing, I bet they’ll all be for sale on Itunes or Rhapsody sooner or later (or you could enhance the band’s sales by buying 3 copies w/the bonus tracks)