My oh my, what does one do with Rascal Flatts these days? They certainly haven’t had the best of luck at country radio lately. Sure, “Rewind” had a respectable top five peak, but the bro followup, “Payback” became their first ever song to miss the top twenty, and “Riot” didn’t do a whole lot better either. Usually in these sorts of cases, labels decide to call it quits on the current album era and shift to a new single to catapult some momentum. That is not the case with Rascal Flatts, who have just released the fourth single off of their 2014 album, Rewind, titled, “I Like The Sound Of That”. Sure, it’s catchy radio fluff, but is it really the smartest choice for these guys?
There really isn’t much to say about the song itself. As I stated above, it’s radio fluff that probably won’t offend as much as “Payback” did, and yet also won’t showcase Gary’s vocals like “Riot” did. That’s it, the song is just “there”. It would have made more sense to release this as the second single than the fourth. Now granted, these guys are not quite the shining stars they once were in the industry, but I still think this would have been a smarter choice to release earlier. As for what it’s about….well…..it’s the same old song and dance. A guy is infatuated with his lover and all of the things she does, especially when she calls him to come on over, because “he likes the sound of that”. It’s not meant to come off dirty, in fact I feel more of a “life sucks and I want someone to fall back on” kind of vibe. If I’m giving credit where it’s due, I will say that Gary’s delivery actually brings this song some flavor. It’s inoffensive pop country that, while certainly not grating or anything, is simply just unmemorable.
Overall, I have no idea if this will catapult these guys back into the top ten or even top twenty at this point. I don’t feel that releasing another single from this album is the smartest choice moving forward, but time will tell if I’m wrong about that. Until then, take “I Like The Sound Of That” for what it is. Nothing great, nothing bad, just “eh”.
Grade: C+
Listen: “I Like The Sound Of That”
Author: Zackary Kephart
There really isn’t much to say about the song itself. As I stated above, it’s radio fluff that probably won’t offend as much as “Payback” did, and yet also won’t showcase Gary’s vocals like “Riot” did. That’s it, the song is just “there”. It would have made more sense to release this as the second single than the fourth. Now granted, these guys are not quite the shining stars they once were in the industry, but I still think this would have been a smarter choice to release earlier. As for what it’s about….well…..it’s the same old song and dance. A guy is infatuated with his lover and all of the things she does, especially when she calls him to come on over, because “he likes the sound of that”. It’s not meant to come off dirty, in fact I feel more of a “life sucks and I want someone to fall back on” kind of vibe. If I’m giving credit where it’s due, I will say that Gary’s delivery actually brings this song some flavor. It’s inoffensive pop country that, while certainly not grating or anything, is simply just unmemorable.
Overall, I have no idea if this will catapult these guys back into the top ten or even top twenty at this point. I don’t feel that releasing another single from this album is the smartest choice moving forward, but time will tell if I’m wrong about that. Until then, take “I Like The Sound Of That” for what it is. Nothing great, nothing bad, just “eh”.
Grade: C+
Listen: “I Like The Sound Of That”
Author: Zackary Kephart
