Gloriana seem to have had a somewhat turbulent start to their musical careers with their first two albums both peaking at 2 on Top Country Albums as well as a high-profile spot on Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless Tour’. However, following the departure of Cheyenne Kimball in 2011 and after the success of their second album ‘A Thousand Miles Left Behind’, their first attempt at new music to lead into this new record didn’t perform well, with ‘Best Night Ever’ peaking at #37 on country airplay charts, and ‘Trouble’ (which is included on ‘Three’) doing marginally better at #24.
I’m not sure what to think of ‘Three’. On the one hand, some of the better songs sound strikingly similar to something that would have been released by Lady Antebellum when they had some sort of twang, whereas some of the other songs are so faux-EDM that I actually find it hard to understand how a band can aim for a certain sound and miss it so badly. I have no problem with a country band trying out different sounds, but I don’t understand how a label-backed and -produced album can produce EDM sounds which are so behind-the-times.
For example, on ‘Are You Ready’, after an opening harmony which sounds exactly like it is being sung by Hillary and Charles from Lady Antebellum, the first verse sounds just like Usher is singing. But here’s the catch: Usher isn’t singing it, and normal people can’t pull that off. They just aren’t that smooth. The rest of the song isn’t too bad, but it is ‘party-country’ at its most inane, with lyrics like ‘’Boy what you got, go on take a shot, best make it hot’’ and “Are you ready for a low-ride, gonna take it to the flip-side’’. I don’t want to listen to a song completely devoid of meaning unless it is something like Florida-Georgia Line which is actually good party music [ed note: really?].
‘It’s On Tonight’ is not any better. Vocally, Rachel tries to create an electro-like sound, but if they go in that direction, then please just commit to the musical style and make an electro track. On ‘It’s On Tonight’ they actually have a pretty cool banjo and steel guitar backing, which is at odds to the chorus which has lyrics like ‘”We turned it up, poured a little poison in a plastic cup, hears to the weekend, raise ‘em up’’ and the ‘oh oh oh’ vocal repeats, which should definitely be done by post-production mixing (if at all) to avoid the cringe-factor that it produces on this track.
However, my rant is over (probably) because there are also some pretty decent tracks on ‘Three’. ‘Nobody But You’ is a really lovely ballad, starting with an emotional delivery in the verses leading to a powerful, yet still delicate rise in the chorus. Melodically, it hits the spot, and lyrically I think it is also the best song in the album, exploring the longing for someone that has gone, with the desperation really coming across in the delivery. However, it is sandwiched directly between ‘It’s On Tonight’ and ‘Are You Ready’, so maybe it just sounds really good compared to those train wrecks.
‘’Ain’t Runnin’ Out Of Summer Yet’’ is one of Gloriana’s more ‘Lady Antebellum’ tracks, sounding quite similar to some of the songs on their latest album ‘747’. Despite this, it is a song that is greater than the sum of its parts, since as the title suggests it doesn’t explore any particularly deep topics, and is just a bit filler in terms of the themes it explores. Even so, the backing chorus is so nice and rich that I find myself being strangely drawn to the song anyway. A similar effect is seen on ‘Lighters’, which has such a satisfying sound that the fairly generic lyrics about fans lighting their lighters at concerts can be overlooked.
I think the previous paragraph can be used to describe the album as a whole, since melodically and sonically it is pretty sound, but it doesn’t explore any interesting places lyrically, and can’t really be described as emotional in delivery (aside from a select few songs). However, if this review has seemed a bit ambivalent, then that’s because it is, but ‘Three’ is still better than quite a lot of the inane pop-country out there at the moment, so I think a lot of people will still like it.
