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Saints!

Thursday
March 28th, 2024

lady antebellum ocean spotlight pageELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

I follow a handful of musical groups on Twitter and I always enjoy seeing them talk about projects and other happenings in their lives. One of the groups I follow is the country trio Lady Antebellum and since the fall the group has been talking a lot about their most recent album “Ocean,” which was ultimately released in November. 

I finally got the chance to listen to the album earlier this week on YouTube while doing some work here at the paper and ultimately, I was not prepared for everything I would experience with this album. 

One of the things I’ve always liked about Lady Antebellum is the consistency in their sound and how they’ve been able to maintain that as the country music scene has changed throughout the past few years. They maintain that sound with “Ocean” and overall, everything comes out sounding very, very well. The first thing that needs to be praised is the vocals because they are outstanding – leading lady Hillary Scott and fellow lead vocalist Charles Kelly harmonize on every song so well together and you can hear so much emotion and passion in each song as the album goes on. Dave Haywood also does a great job with all the background instrumentals he does and continues showing off his talent in that area. All three of them work extremely well together to maintain the group’s sound and they have great musical chemistry, making for an album full of great songs. 

Another thing I noticed about this album is how many emotions are covered on the album. The album is full of songs about how people are feeling in several types of situations, and the lyrics and in the songs capture all of them perfectly. One of the examples of this is the album’s lead single “What If I Never Get Over You?” which is about someone getting over a former partner and whether or not they’ll actually be able to do so – the lyrics perfectly capture the worry and anxiety of that feeling of “Will I ever find someone else to love again?” after a breakup. Another great example of this is the song “What I’m Leaving For,” which I feel is somewhat of an artist anthem saying “I know I’ll be gone again, but there is a reason for that and I’ll be back home to you soon,” which I feel can be especially prevalent for touring artists with families because there probably is at least a little bit of that guilty feeling for leaving their families while they’re out in the world. Without being all melodramatic, this song perfectly captures those feelings. 

One of my overall favorite songs from the album is the song “Alright,” which is another somewhat anthem talking about how even though life might not be going quite the way you want it, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and ultimately, everything will be okay, even if it takes a bit of a scenic route to get there. It’s a very sweet song with a great melody and again, it just perfectly captures those feelings, which everyone has at one point or another. I could foresee this song being a great single and I hope it becomes one because it is a great song. 

Another favorite song from the album is “You Can Do You,” which is a great song about how people should just be themselves and have fun with who they are. The beat is catchy, the lyrics are fun and the vocals are great – in some ways, this song actually reminds me of the group’s past single “You Look Good” and I can actually see this being a summer single that gets blasted in the car. I also really like the song’s message about how everyone should do what makes them happy without worrying about what other people think because spending that time worrying just isn’t really worth it, which I feel is a good message to have in a song nowadays since everyone seems to be extra judgemental about everything. 

Another song I particularly liked, which almost made me cry, is the album’s title song “Ocean,” which concerns one party in a relationship wishing their partner would open up to them and fully let them in so they can fully love them. The chorus is so well written – “Here you are, next to me/So much beauty at my feet/All I wanna do is swim/But the waves keep crashin' in/No, I'm not afraid to drown/Take me out, take me down/I'm so tired of the shore/Let me in, baby/You're an ocean, beautiful and blue/I wanna swim in you” and the rest of the lyrics are so well written and there’s so much emotion in the vocals that I legitimately had a couple tears try and escape. I feel like everyone has at least one relationship where they feel it’s one-sided because one party can’t/doesn’t want to fully open themselves up to the other party. Like the other songs on the album, this song captures those feelings perfectly. 

Overall, I very much enjoyed listening to Lady Antebellum’s most recent album “Ocean” and I would give it a solid “A.” The vocals and instrumentals are great on each of the songs and the lyrics are fantastic and capture so many different emotions, making for a solid and enjoyable album. If you’re a Lady Antebellum fan, you will most likely enjoy listening to “Ocean.”