When A Thousand Horses had been touring behind their 2015 Quantity One nation single “Smoke,” the band introduced alongside a drummer, a keyboardist, and three feminine backup singers to each present, someway managing to squeeze 9 individuals onstage. On the time, Rolling Stone likened them to a rustic Lynyrd Skynyrd, however it’s a a lot completely different and leaner Horses that launched the brand new album The Exterior final week.
Their take care of a Nashville main label is historic historical past, the backup singers are lengthy gone, and, most notably, unique guitarist Zach Brown exited the group final yr to be nearer to household, leaving singer Michael Interest, guitarist Invoice Satcher, and bassist Graham DeLoach to experience on. You would say the band is a couple of horses shy of their title.
However there’s nothing missing on The Exterior, a sturdy, melodic country-rock file that exhibits what’s attainable when a band is courageous sufficient to make music not from the POV of the place they had been, however the place they’re now: on the surface wanting in. Over 11 tracks, A Thousand Horses write and sing about letting go, perseverance, and heartbreak in a susceptible means that always escaped the group after they had been chasing nation radio hits.
Which isn’t to say none exist right here. Produced by Jon Randall, who’s overseen albums by equally gritty artists like Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley, The Exterior, launched on the band’s personal Freeway Sound Data, has a couple of tunes that will match properly on a “cool nation” playlist.
“Roll On” is a plea for a lover to ghost their present relationship and begin recent like “we all the time talked about.” Satcher’s slide taking part in is particularly emotive right here, matching the hope in Interest’s voice that he simply would possibly — lastly — reunite with the one which acquired away. Maybe it’s the identical woman he pines for in “Summer time,” a hooky “na-na-na” singalong that flips the title to be a couple of title and, fortunately, not in regards to the season.
“Goin’ Down,” in the meantime, is an easygoing occasion ballad within the vein of Zac Brown Band, with lyrics about whiskey, hangouts within the woods, and shout-outs to stable nation gold on the audio system. It’s a bit of skinny, however Interest succeeds in promoting the nostalgia. The frontman is singing extra naturally than ever, in stark distinction to the compressed whine he typically used circa “Smoke.”
However two songs particularly embody this newest chapter of A Thousand Horses. “Room Filled with Strangers,” a ingesting music written by Interest and Chris Stapleton, suggests the darkish days of the band, when the long run was unsure they usually had few of their nook. “That’s how you discover out/you’re actually alone,” Interest sings, “when a room stuffed with strangers/begins feeling like residence.”
The title monitor has shades of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers heartland rock, and captures the group at their most confident and defiant. “I’m carried out retaining it between the strains/ain’t attempting to be something I ain’t,” goes the refrain. It’s their very own “I Received’t Again Down” declaration.
