Big & Rich - "Gravity"

[StevePulaski]

Gravity (2014)
By: Big & Rich

Rating: ★★★

This year marks ten years since Big & Rich registered themselves on the country radar by releasing their debut single "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)," a downright goofy country anthem that was loud, bawdy, and downright hilarious. The duo had not only found an admirable mesh between rap, hard rock, and country, but they succeeded enough to find their song reaching number eleven on the country charts and their subsequent album, Horse of a Different Color, going platinum three times. The duo had found a formula that worked for a solid four years and two more albums before taking a four year hiatus to focus on solo careers. The duo then regrouped in 2012 to release Hillbilly Jedi, a redundant and thoroughly unimpressive array of tunes that had no consistency and no real redeeming qualities other than two or three songs being of passable quality.

Big & Rich return in 2014 with Gravity, which is not only their most mature and sophisticated release yet but arguably their most consistent. The album starts out with slower songs before gradually descending into tunes that bear a bit more raucous attitude before concluding with a couple more ballads and, finally, ending with a loud, nostalgic blast that feels at home with their older work. The album kicks off with its lead single "Look at You," an all right country tune describing unmissable blue eyes on that girl you can't get enough of, and keeps that slow and steady pace, arriving at the titular track soon enough, which proclaims the mesmerizing and thought-provoking line that "lovers make the world go 'round."

Big & Rich hit a stride with tunes that pick up Gravity's pace a little, with the giddy "Brand New Buzz" and fairly solid "Rollin' Along," but are careful not to descend too far into their old roots, as they clearly recognize that maybe it's time for variety to be infused into their careers after sixteen years of work. The final tracks of the album drum up seriously commendable material, as "Don't Wake Me Up" channels terrific country heartbreak territory, concerning a man who doesn't want to be woken up by his wife leaving him in the middle of the night, in a song that combines truly shattering emotions with the simple but effective lyricism, and "I Came to Git Down" concludes the album with the Big & Rich we originally knew, serving as the album's deviation to raucousness.

Gravity is a bit of a surprise for both country listeners and Big & Rich fans alike; it's smooth, consistent in terms of the album's flow and pacing, and adult about its rhymes and ideas. Big & Rich devotees who saw nothing wrong with their music before may look at this album with a sense of disgust, but the variety in their music, to me, was much needed, considering a four year hiatus brought one of the weakest and most disappointing albums of the last decade and, as a result of ambition, we got one of the smoothest country albums of the year.

Recommended tracks (in order): "Don't Wake Me Up," "Brand New Buzz," "Gravity, "I Came to Git Down," and "Lose a Little Sleep."