(3 / 5)
Country music legends and multi-platinum, Grammy-winning Little Big Town will release their 12th studio album “It’s A Dying Art” tomorrow.
Co-produced by the group’s Karen Fairchild and two-time Grammy-winner Gena Johnson (Jason Isbell, Dolly Parton, Brandi Carlile), the album features appearances from friends of the band including Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley Monroe and Jason Isbell.
Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook are Little Big Town from Nashville, founded in 1998, and their four-part harmonies are subline; unique in as much a they do not feature a specific lead vocalist.
You might be thinking, with such a legendary group and star-studded guest list, why the three out of five stars I rated this album for this review? [3 Stars in our rating system = Decent].
Well, it is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but there are a few too many indulgences and lack of pace for me. “Sucker for a Sad Song” and “Dying Art” both start off really strong, but then go on for nearly six minutes for reasons I do not understand.
There’s just vocalisations in “Sucker for a Sad Song” and a repetitive refrain of “Meet me downstairs in the middle of the night” in “Dying Art”; both continuing far beyond where the song has reached its natural end.
Track three “The Door”, with Jason Isbell, is nice, but it’s a pretty melancholic ballad that comes in too early in the record, and for me it made the album lose momentum too early on.
I did like the moody “Closing Time” with Kelsea Ballerini, but she’s only really a backing vocalist on this track. Her vocals are buttery smooth and gorgeous, but I would have loved more – in fairness, I am a big Kelsea fan, so make your own mind up on that one when you hear it.
That’s not to say there isn’t some very good stuff here: “Hey There Sunshine” and “We Could Have It All” are hopeful with emotive choruses. The whole album has the classic LBT sound, with those lovely trademark vocal harmonies that fans will know and love.
This project feels like a collection of songs that the band enjoyed getting together to record, which may well stand the test of time. Maybe all of these 13 tracks will grow on me, but for now it’s definitely one for the long time listeners of this band. Newcomers to Little Big Town may want to start listening to earlier records in the discography before giving this a spin.
By Fran Parry
(1 / 5) ‘Dull Zone’
(2 / 5) ‘OK Zone’
(3 / 5) ‘Decent Zone’
(4 / 5) ‘Super Zone’
(5 / 5) ‘Awesome Zone’
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