Getting Old is the fourth studio album from the country music megastar Luke Combs, who headlined the Country to Country music festival last year and is looking to have a sell our Arena tour in the UK later this year. Bosting 18 tracks and a run length of over an hour, we take a closer look at Luke’s new album.
The first track on the album is “Growing Up and Getting Old” The song pretty much sets out the stages for the album. It’s a song about taking a step back and maturing in life, which we all go through as we age.
Next up is “Hannah Ford Road” it’s a little heavier than the opening track. But, again, it’s a stereotypical story. Boy likes girl. Father disapproves. It does have some nice lines, however, such as “Like two thieves in the night in the light of the dashboard glow” It’s a decent little song, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best on the album.
That is followed by “Back 40 Back” I immensely enjoy this song. The idea is that the rural way of life is being crowded out by every growing city that is closing in around them. Progress destroys everything in its path without regard for the people or way of life that existed before. Maybe I can relate, as I’ve lived in Manchester all my life and seen it change for better and for worse in many ways. It’s a good song and well worth giving a listen to.
Sadly, next up, we have “You Found Yours” to be honest, I wasn’t feeling this song. It sounds like a Luke Combs song, but it’s average. I don’t think anything here would make it stand out from the rest of his musical catalogue.
“The Beer, The Band and the Barstool” is another decent song. I like the chorus on this one: “One’ll Hang around and tell him what he wants to hear. One’ll help by drownin’ out the how’d you wind up here. One’ll Hold him up when love had let him down. They do the best they can for a broken-hearted fool. They go hand in hand with losing you. The beer, the band and the barstool” It’s a decent little drinking, heartbreak song.
“Still” is a little love song about how even after all the time has passed, he still falls in love just as much as on day one. Not the biggest fan of this song, but maybe if you have had a long-term partner, you might get some enjoyment out of it.
After a couple of songs, “See me Now” and “Joe”, we reach the halfway point of the album with “A Song was Born”, which is a song that I do like. As the title suggests, it talks about how songs are created, and I do like the line, “Outta hard times, outta heartbreaks, Hitch a good rhyme to a mistake, Then you pour those feelings out over three chords, A song was born” it’s a neat idea for a song, and it makes it stand out.
It’s followed by Eric Church’s written “My Song Will Never Die”, which is a great little track, and it makes sense that it is the track before it was about the birth of a song. That a song about how you will die but your music will remain should follow it. This might be my favourite song on the album. Well worth a listen.
This is followed by “Out where the wild things are”, an okay song about this brother being wild and moving out west. Then we slow it down with “Love you Anyway,” a lovely little love song. With some nice lyrics like “Even if I knew the day we met, you’d be the reason this heart breaks. Oh, I’d love you anyway” as one example. I think this is a much better song than “Still” from earlier on the album, in my opinion.
There is a song called “Take You With Me”, which is, to be honest, a pretty average track, followed by a cover of “Fast Car” and then “Tattoo on a Sunburn” This is the song that every young lad who’s ever gone to Ibiza, got way too drunk and ended up getting a Tattoo that they regret. And end up covering it up in the end. So the lesson is don’t get drunk and get a random woman’s name placed on your body.
“5 Leaf Clover” is next and is one of the best songs on the album. The song is about being thankful for the life that he is living. It’s a lovely song playing back to the 4-leaf clover being lucky, and it’s just overall a good song to listen to.
Sadly, this is followed by “Fox in the Henhouse”, which is another pretty average song, if I’m going, to be honest. The final piece is “The Part”, a song about what it’s like living on the road as a travelling artist. A story about missing family and what it’s like being away from them and how they don’t tell you about that part when you get started in the business. It’s an excellent way to end the album and a different perspective we don’t often hear about. All the sacrifices they make so they can travel around entertaining us—another highlight of the album.
Overall, it’s a good album that could have been a little tighter. While they are several standout songs, “A Song was Born”, “My Song Will Never Die”, “The Part”, “Growing up and getting old”, and “5 Leaf Clover”, they are some just average songs that stretch out the run time of the album and at least for me don’t add much to the album. I think this would have been better, cutting the run time down.
Still, I’ve seen Luke live a few times now and look forward to seeing him again when he travels back here later in the year. I’ll be listening to this album a lot more in the interim, and maybe some of the songs will start to grow on me. But, for now, I would highly recommend the songs listed above.
Country Connection 
1 Comment