Having made a big impact in London at this year’s C2C festival in March the release of Nate Smith’s debut album is an eagerly anticipated event. 2022 was a fantastic year for Nate Smith. Number one hits, appearances on platforms like the Bobby Bones Show, Opry debuts and lots more besides but it looks like 2023 is gearing up to be even more impactful for this powerful, soulful artist.
Smith, as befits a Country music artist, has a fascinating back story of almost walking away from the music industry and the worst wildfire in Californian history which burned his home town of Paradise to the ground. To learn more about Smith’s origin story you can read one of our early interviews with him right here.
The elephant in the room with this deluxe, 26 track version of Smith’s album is that by including so many tracks for consideration you aren’t really presenting an album that creates a joined up narrative. There’s no ebb and flow to the project as a whole. Instead, and this is an increasingly common trend in Country music, the label has chosen to release a ‘content portal’ full of Nate Smith’s songs. Do with that portal as you will: listen to all 26 songs, put them on shuffle and play pot luck with what you get over and over again or cut the 26 down to a manageable ‘best 16’ and create your own album. The choice is yours. When you do that you are relying on the artist being creative and talented enough to be able to produce enough stand-out and original tracks rather than a lot of generic, samey-sounding filler (an issue I have with a very recent, high profile 36 track release) and, thankfully, Nate Smith is someone who fits the description of that former category, and then some.
If you want melodic, guitar orientated Country Pop/Rock, Smith can deliver that in his sleep. Recent number one, ‘Whiskey on You’ is the poster child for muscle-bound, guitar Country Pop /Rock with its chugging rhythms and explosive chorus. Similarly, ‘World on Fire’, a track getting a lot of buzz and attention on social media right now, might well be considered to be ‘Whiskey on You’ part II. In recent interviews with both Ashley Gorley and Smith himself, both writers mentioned working with each other and I guess ‘World on Fire’ might well have been the fruits of that connection. A moody undertone and some rocking guitars would make this an easy send to Country radio if the label wanted to try and replicate what Smith achieved with ‘Whiskey on You’.
Similarly, ‘Name Storms After’ would also make a great single with it’s Carrie Underwood ‘Two Black Cadillacs’ vibe and atmospheric chorus. ‘You’re a 100 year flood, sweeping me away in a tidal wave rush,’ Smith emotes to his love on this dramatic song. ‘If I Could Stop Loving You’ and ‘Alright Alright Alright’ are also fine examples of guitar-driven Country Pop Rock at its finest too.
If you like your music a little dirtier and a little more on the Luke Combs side then tracks like ‘LFG’ and ‘One Good Girl’ have got you covered. The former is a bombastic, ready made concert opener if I’ve ever heard one. Joyous, rowdy and raucous, ‘LFG’ would have been my choice for album opener and tone setter for this project with its big drums, loud guitars and gang vocals whilst ‘One Good Girl’ is all dirty guitars and ACDC-lite vibes. As its chorus explodes you can almost visualise the beers-in-the-air singalong moment that Smith even references in the song.
If heartfelt and passionate ballads are the kind of songs that move you then look no further than ‘Wreckage’, ‘I Found You,’ ‘I Don’t Wanna Go to Heaven’ and ‘Raised Up’. All four of these songs are dripping in diva-like power: a vibe and a sound that Smith owns effortlessly. ‘Wreckage’ comes across as something akin to Adele jamming with Meat Loaf, it’s that sweepingly dramatic, whilst ‘I Found You’ is all big notes, big headlines and arena-sized ambitions. Smith really nails all the ballads on this album in a way that is both impactful and always on the right side of the line that demarcates impactful and overtly sweetly saccharine.
Elsewhere on this 26 track monster you’ll find some 70s style Fleetwood Mac-esque songwriter vibes in ‘Sleeve’ and ‘You Shouldn’t Have To’, two songs that are paired consecutively together for a reason. You’ll find Mitchell Tenpenny-esque bombast on ‘You Only Want Me When You’re Drunk’ and ‘Bad Memory’, two more consecutive songs that echo similar vibes. ‘You Only Want Me When You’re Drunk’ will be a real marmite song to some, who will be surprised at the left turn it takes as the heavy bass and nightclub vibes kick in on the chorus. I like it. It feels different and is a nice palette cleanser on this content-heavy release.
Where Smith really excels, however, is when he steps away from the Country tropes of boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-lusts-after-girl and beers, parties and good times. On songs like ‘Better Boy’, Oil Spot’ and ‘Dear Heart’ you get a sense of where this artist is going to go in the years to come. ‘Better Boy’ is a HARDY-penned ‘Buy Dirt’ slice of impactful brilliance that chronicles the growth and evolution that men need to do in order to love, nurture and respect the women in their lives. ‘Be the answer to her mama’s prayers, never let her think that somewhere out there, there’s a better boy,’ Smith advises on a song that will be relatable to women trying to find a good guy and to men trying to be better. ‘Oil Spot’, meanwhile is a gentle, wistful ballad about nostalgia and how it can impact on your memories over time whilst ‘Dear Heart’, buried, as it is at track 25 might well be the sleeper-breakout hit of the album if it is given its time in the spotlight. It features Emily Weisband on writing credits and is a slick, melodic track that plays with both American AOR vibes and a little bit of Heartland Rock at the same time as it burrows its way into your consciousness and refuses to let go.
Throw in HARDY-esque 90s Grunge overtones on ‘I Don’t Miss You’ and some Morgan Wallen vibes on ‘What an Angel Ain’t’ and you’ve pretty much covered a whole host of sounds and styles across the 26 tracks on offer here. It all adds up to create a varied and interesting listen which is crucially important when dumping this amount of songs on an audience all in one go. Each song has to have something unique to say if this project and this artist is going to hold people’s attention and it’s fair to say that Nate Smith and his team have absolutely nailed that. Smith is an artist of real quality and he shows that time and time again across the 26 tracks on offer here. Explosive vocals on one song, more nuanced and tender on others. Meat Loaf-esque bombast here, wistful 70s songwriter vibes there. It all coalesces to make a fantastic debut album that hits all the right notes now and gives us a little insight into the potential artist that Smith could become somewhere down the line too.
Tracklist: 1. If I Could Stop Loving You 2. Alright, Alright, Alright 3. One Good Girl 4. Back At It Again 5. You Ain’t Been In Love 6. Better Boy 7. You Only Want Me When You’re Drunk 8. Bad Memory 9. Oil Spot 10. Wreckage 11. LFG 12. Whiskey On You 13. You Shouldn’t Have To 14. Sleeve 15. I Found You 16. Backseat 17. Name Storms After 18. Raised Up 19. Under My Skin 20. I Don’t Wanna Go To Heaven 21. World on Fire 22. I Don’t Miss You 23. Good By Now 24. What an Angel Ain’t 25. Dear Heart 26. Love is Blind Record Label: Sony Release Date: April 28th Buy ‘Nate Smith’ now
