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Justin Moore ‘Straight Outta the Country’ Album Review
Justin Moore has released his next studio project, Straight Outta the Country available everywhere now, April 23rd, where you buy and stream music.
For established country artist Justin Moore, quarantine was spent as downtime with his family. During a recent press event, Moore admits, “I just haven’t been super creative. It’s a blessing that we had this music ready to go because of that.” His newest album Straight Outta the Country, features eight tracks that will be new to fans but not to Moore because none of them were written during the quarantine period that has plagued the country over the past year. According to Moore, his newest project is an extension to his previous album Late Nights and Longnecks which came out in 2019. Despite the similar sounds to his last fifth studio album, people are hungry for new music during these times and Moore is determined to dish it out.
The opening track, “Hearing Things,” is an upbeat country tune where you can hear Moore’s thick southern accent as he sings the lyrics excitedly. The electric guitars in this song are a bit distracting but it’s a good thing; it adds velocity to the track setting it up to be a great song for the heat of the summer. Throughout the song, Moore recounts the lonesome whistle of a midnight train, truck tires on gravel roads, and a radio consumed with static. At the end of each chorus he sings out, “I’m hearing things and they’re calling me home.” The word “home” is the perfect word to encapsulate this album as a whole. There are many shout-outs to small town life that Moore is all too familiar with.
Another one of those songs is “We Didn’t Have Much,” the lead single off the album. There are two versions of the track on the record, one is completely stripped back and performed acoustically. The acoustic version lends itself to the story being told in the lyrics; the beautiful acoustic guitar is the only thing aligned with the vocals. The lyrics, that Moore described as “brilliantly simple,” were penned by Jeremy Stover, Paul DiGiovanni, and Randy Montana, and although Moore didn’t take part in the writing, the passion in his voice sends the message about the simplicity and strength that comes out of growing up in the boonies. Moore himself grew up in the small town of Poyen, Arkansas; the town where he also currently lives with his wife and four kids. The chorus captures the song completely as Moore sings, “All we had was us / And that little bitty house and a lotta love / We had it all when we didn’t have much.”
Another stripped-back song on Straight Outta the Country is “More Than Me,” one of the most powerful tracks Moore has ever recorded. The idea for this one came from a conversation he had with one of his daughters and explained this song is , “a love letter to our kids” after writing it with other dads. This will certainly be a popular father-daughter dance at weddings, signifying a bittersweet moment. Admiration and endearment bursts from the lyrics, “I know the world is gonna think the world of yah / But I swear on the stars above you / No one is gonna love you more than me.” Again, the song is comprised of just vocals and an acoustic guitar, a perfect choice in order to let the lyricism glisten. And despite being acoustic and slow in its movement, it’s the most remarkable song on the whole project.
‘STRAIGHT OUTTA THE COUNTRY’ TRACKLIST: 1. Hearing Things (Rhett Akins, Kelly Archer, Chris Stevens) 2. Consecutive Days Alive (Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell, Jeremy Stover) 3. We Didn’t Have Much (Paul DiGiovanni, Randy Montana, Jeremy Stover) 4. She Ain’t Mine No More (Justin Moore, Paul DiGiovanni, Jamie Paulin, Jeremy Stover) 5. More Than Me (Justin Moore, Paul DiGiovanni, Chase McGill, Jeremy Stover) 6. Straight Outta The Country (Michael Hardy, Cam Montgomery, Josh Thompson) 7. You Keep Getting Me Drunk (Rhett Akins, Kelly Archer, Paul DiGiovanni) 8. We Didn’t Have Much – Acoustic (Paul DiGiovanni, Randy Montana, Jeremy Stover)
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