Album Review: Rascal Flatts ‘Changed’
The titular opener, ‘Changed’, seems to present the case for a new and improved Rascal Flatts. If that’s the case, they’ve served it up a bit cold, with a dated sound complete with a guitar solo cribbed from any power ballad circa 1993. Maybe the title is an unfortunate coincidence, but it comes across as an ironic let down, and I’m not sure that it’s better if the band is unaware.
When once they were the young and interesting alternative country outfit, the pop half of their pop-meets-bluegrass sound hasn’t held up as well as its countermeasure, and Rascal Flatts seem to be slipping quite comfortably into the role of that old band that sticks around to churn out tunes like the good ol’ days.
‘Banjo’ is a step up. It still doesn’t offer anything new, but they come more into their strengths on this one, and the album begins to find a trepidatious footing.
‘Hot In Here’ is a blatant and sort of awkward attempt at a more contemporary song structure, but man, that oldschool guitar solo, though thankfully leashed on this one, really seems to hold them back from delving into different sounds.
‘Come Wake Me Up’ is a simple and effective lament to lost love, complete with all the country fixings, careful to hit the bases of alcoholism and chain smoking. Unfortunately, it never finds resolution. I wouldn’t take a guy like this back, and why should she? ‘Let It Hurt’ is a superior treatment for the same basic idea, but it still doesn’t seem completely genuine.
The second half of the album is markedly better, or at least more organic, but it also drags a little bit. Where in the first act it is only the failed experiments that stand out, nothing in the second is particularly memorable. The only thing that appears to have Changed for the band is that they’ve run out of ideas.
Rascal Flatts are at their best on ‘She’s Leaving’, with a banjo, a fiddle, and a simple chord progression–not trying too hard. The solo in this one is even pretty good. The song has attitude, it’s catchy, and it isn’t (overly) pandering.
‘Hurry Baby’ is the perfect song for the spouse of a soldier waiting for their partner to return home. Or, for the exceptionally sentimental, while waiting for them to get back from the corner store with a carton of milk. Either would hold about the same weight in the context of an album looking to pen one uninspired song for every potential listener.
‘Love Me’ features an interesting chord progression for country music, and would have been a much better opener. If the album were rearranged and tweaked only a little bit it might have done a lot to mask what are ultimately bad songs, but that’s a hard flaw to overcome.
There is a place for this sort of music, and some will say that country is the right genre for exactly this type of coddling, but good country music is set apart by the fact that it comes directly from the soul. Changed is written from a guide, and its rare moments of effect are marred by that association.