Well, it’s probably no secret that I’m not the world’s biggest Rascal Flatts fan. I was back in the day, but I grew out of boyband pop when I was 15 and I’ll only get up to sing along if ‘Life Is A Highway’ comes on. That said, however much I was convinced that ‘Rewind’ would be a terrible album now that Scott Borchetta was digging his claws in and making them even worse, I did sort of want to give it a chance. Maybe, moving away from that over-polished preppy sound they’d offer me something I could be getting along with, even if the lead single of the same name wasn’t it. After all, just because they’re middle-aged and singing about teenage love and wearing bad clothes, that doesn’t mean their music won’t be good, right? Right?
hat becomes immediately apparently about this collection of 13 tracks is that it’s trying to present Rascal Flatts as younger, as in two decades younger. Channelling the PG-13 surface sentiments of love and attraction, there’s a certain youth – nay, immaturity – about the ideas behind ‘Payback’, for example. Setting the scene of a woman scorned by an ex-lover, the narrator encourages her to get payback on the other man by sleeping with him. Yet unlike similar songs I have heard in the past (such as Brad Paisley’s album track ‘Get Even’), there’s no tongue-in-cheek delivery, no sly wink, no likeability factor. There is almost a sinister touch to the lyrics and Gary LeVox’s performance, a childishness, an older man perviness. This song is not jovial or humorous, but looming and dark, and while it was unlikely that is how it was meant, that is how it comes across to me and surely others too.
The problem is as middle-aged men Rascal Flatts are not designed for this kind of material. From the production to the storylines, they are targeting a young, hip audience, and this easily comes off as creepy when placed in the mouths of those too old to pull them off. ‘DJ Tonight’, while briefly sounding sweet with a ukulele accompaniment, quickly turns into a poor copy of One Direction or one of their equally prepubescent contemporaries, so much so that the mention of “liquor” sounds misplaced. The same charade occurs on ‘I Like The Sound of That’, acoustic guitar winding around the words “you sing along with some Timberlake bumping”, with a “come on over” chorus that would sound infinitely more appropriate coming from someone like Scotty McCreery, although I would think he has more artistic dignity than to record something like this.
But just as on ‘Payback’, a heavier combination of faux-rock and club-orientated sounds and beats are also present in droves. ‘Powerful Stuff’ is Demo Lovato-esque in its “edgy” form of throwaway pop, the lyrics cringe-worthingly bad, while ‘Night of Our Lives’ not only completely rips off the guitar hook from Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ (pick a less famous song why don’t you?), but its initial cool folky vibe is slashed straight through as soon the chorus kicks in. Sadly this represents one of the better songs on the album, because not only are they being matched with ill-fitting material that tries to sell them to a more lucrative demographic than they’re capable of pleasing, but they also have a habit of starting songs well and then completely ruining them as soon as the chorus starts. ‘Life’s A Song’ is one such example, the initially gospel-infused soulful vocals accompanied only by piano serving as a nice backdrop for lyrics that could potentially evolve into something profound. Yet, the chorus and hookline creates a lyrical cheese and pop production that I find unfathomable considering the structural basis of the song. How can a melody and a style so beautiful be shat on in this way?! Cussing is just one way to display my lack of comprehension for the production methods here.
There are a few songs I like, of course. This isn’t an album full of absolute wastes of my time, although nearly. ‘I Have Never Been To Memphis’ has a similar feel to their classic releases such as ‘Stand’, and nearly becomes a sweet look at the cultural differences between California and Tennessee, overcome by love, if it weren’t for a few clichéd lines from the second verse onwards. I’ll let that slide however considering some of the other atrocities that ‘Rewind’ as an album offers. ‘Riot’ also isn’t a bad song, and although drawn from the Taylor Swiftian pop that made Scott Borchetta a very rich man, there’s not a lot I can dislike of it, including the catchy hook. In addition, ‘Aftermath’ is a truly beautiful song (and my favorite), utilizing a sparseness that suits them far better than any of the teen country pop does. Led by strong drums and harmonies and decorated with tinklings of guitars and piano to slowly build it, the change of beat on the chorus is an example of the subtleties that really make it special. Plus, a novelty indeed, the lyrics aren’t a total cheesefest, and the delivery from Gary is much more sincere than most of his performances only with having one of the nicest melodies I’ve heard in some time, wavering and swooping for a dramatic but effective relish.
The second and final song I really connected with was ‘The Mechanic’. The album’s closer, it appears as a simple acoustic love ballad that might get lost amongst the rest, if it weren’t for the harmonies that have been run through a vocoder or something of that nature. What’s more, a particularly prominent bass line that features as more of a lead instrument than usual also allow this song to stand out and have more of an abstract soundscape than any of the other songs on the record. True, on many occasions they’ve tried to be edgy and oftentimes failed, because these are being articulated in a way that opts for youth as opposed to maturity and thus taints them with insincerity and branding issues. It’s easy to forget that the reason these songs and production choices work for youngsters is because the target audience finds them sexually attractive. A 15-year-old girl is hardly going to want to bone Jay DeMarcus (I hope), no matter how many glittery graphic tees he wears. The only option Rascal Flatts have as a group is to create music that is age-appropriate and that means making music that has substance. If they find they want to change their sound and experiment in the studio, then going in a less commercial direction is what they need to do. Sadly, I think Mr Borchetta has had a part to play in this one.
Overall, ‘Rewind’ has some pretty awful cuts on it. But from time to time, there is just a glimmer of light that indicates they might have some artistic merit. Just about.
