It's awesome to see UK country music on the up. The Shires may have been responsible for starting it when 'Brave' became the first ever UK country album to peek inside the top ten of the charts, but I don't think anyone could have been prepared for what was about to come next. Seemingly out of nowhere, Ward Thomas, a duo consisting of twin sisters Lizzy and Catherine Ward Thomas scored a historic number one album with their 2015 release 'Cartwheels', making them, just like that, the most successful UK country artists in history. Just like that.
And it would be wrong to say that this has not had any impact in the UK country scene. After all, Catherine McGrath produced some pretty damn good pop country on 'Talk of This Town' last year, and US pop country artists like Florida Georgia Line and Kelsea Ballerini are as relevant as they've ever been in the UK thanks to collaborations with Bebe Rexha and The Chainsmokers respectively. Even if I'm not the biggest fan of either of those songs, it does show an audience at least more willing to accept country artists into the UK pop scene.
But what I find most baffling about the whole situation is why Ward Thomas aren't in that group of country artists who are breaking through onto the UK singles chart. After all, they have a number one album under their belt, their production is poppy and accessible while (mostly) not sacrificing their distinct country core, and I'm sure with the right marketing, the duo could be the pioneers of a much bigger revolution in mainstream country music, and I think the charts would be better for it.
And this new album ‘Restless Minds’ seems to be the latest attempt at wrestling country instrumentation into a pop framework, with songwriters who have previously worked with the likes of Olly Murs, Take That and One Direction. It was clear from this that the plan with this album was to go for even more pop crossover than ever, and I’m not directly opposed to that, and I went into this album with a fair bit of hope that it could be pretty solid. So, how was ‘Restless Minds’?
Unfortunately, it was slightly less than I expected. And that certainly does not mean that this album is bad at all. Overall, I would say I enjoyed my time with this album, even though I don’t think it’s quite as consistently strong as ‘Cartwheels’ before it, and it’s quite hard to pin down exactly why that is, mainly because the problems I have with this album are a bit all over the map, almost to the extent that the only consistent element of this album are the girls themselves and their harmonies, and they sound great pretty much on all the songs here, although there are some elements of the vocal production that feel more than a little unnecessary. Why the producers thought pitching down the main vocal line on ‘Rather Be Breathing’ would flatter that production I have no idea, and the ugly synthetic layer sitting just below the vocals in the mix on the utterly throwaway closer ‘This Too Will Pass’ are undoubtedly weaker moments on this album, but they’re in the overwhelming minority.
What I find more frustrating might just be the production across these fifteen tracks, which alternates between being melodically understated and atmospheric like on ‘Changing’ and ‘Hopeless’ and ‘No Fooling Me’, and some of the clunkiest, most horrendously overstuffed instrumentals Ward Thomas have ever had. ‘Rather Be Breathing’ is easily the biggest offender in this category with the grading whistle sound and underweight bleeping synth on the hook being crushed by percussion that’s way too loud, but the thin drums killing the grooves on ‘Never Know’ and ‘Little Girl Sorrow’ are not far behind, and the thin snaps on ‘No Fooling Me’ do nothing to elevate the more organic production
‘Same Love’ might open with a promising electric guitar groove, but that overweight bass and stiff percussion ruin the vibe. The bass sounds much better when it’s just gently supporting the main guitar groove like on ‘Changing’.
But my issues with this album are encapsulated by the track ‘Ain’t That Easy’, one of the better songs on the album. Thin blatantly programmed percussion on the verses that are crushed in the mix, but by the time the hook rolls around the drums sound real. If real drums are going to come in later in the song anyway, then why even bother programming in drums in the first place and compromise the organic country elements of
the production
Having said all of that, there are songs that do sound pretty good. The bouncy groove driven by the acoustic guitar on ‘I Believe In You’ is pretty infectious, as is the genuinely intense dark piano and strings that builds up around the edges of ‘Little Girl Sorrow’ that sounds pretty damn great. Even if it’s unbelievably overproduced, I’d mostly give a pass to the smoky waves of synth that serve as the intro to the album on ‘No Filter’, mostly because that hook is so damn catchy. ‘Deepest You’ is a standout for how well the swells of strings cushion that gorgeous electric guitar, but on the other end of the spectrum you get a song like ‘It’s Not Just Me’ with its cute fluttering piano, or ‘One More Goodbye’, where the straightforward presentation gives the song a certain human earnestness that works with the way that song is written.
But on that note, how is the writing on this album? Well, you certainly get your inessential relationship / breakup songs like the generic head vs heart conflict on ‘Hopeless’ and empowerment anthems like ‘I Believe In You’, but deep down Ward Thomas are better songwriters than that, and, just like on ‘Cartwheels’, they show off their skills in spirts across this album. ‘No Filter’ sets the stage with its ideas about how we use social media as a filter to dictate how other people perceive us from the outside, and ‘Lie Like Me’ takes that one step further by suggesting that it’s bad thing that the kids of today aspire to be like the people they see on social media, because of how these people are filtering themselves.
But from that moment, the thematic arc seems to shift to topics that are a lot less interesting. ‘It’s Not Just Me’ goes for a generic ‘you are not alone’ message with lyrics like ‘I’m just trying to keep on trying’, while ‘Changing’ is equally nondescript in its exploration of how they’ve changed, and ‘I Believe In You’ is the token
empowerment anthem that is the definition of filler.
There are also songs that leave me more confused than anything else. Sure, I get a song like ‘One More Goodbye’ as the duo discuss leaving for Nashville for a bit and leaving their partners behind to make that next step in their careers, but the text is so vague and nonspecific that I don’t feel like I’m getting that true experience, I don’t get the impression that the song is being delivered by someone who has lived that. ‘No Fooling Me’ falls into this category too as it talks about a guy that has people ‘queuing as far as the eye can see’, but the duo’s attempts to convince us that this guy just sees these people as numbers on his phone don’t seem routed in a lot of evidence, and the song makes the guy sound a lot kinder than it’s probably trying to.
But after all of that, there are still a fair few songs I would like to highlight for their adventures songwriting. ‘Ain’t That Easy’ is clever in the way it takes the fantasy of what this relationship could be like, but flips it by suggesting that such a fantasy, however amazing it would be, is never going to actually be achievable, and that youthful fantasy picks up a lot of weight when it’s placed alongside songs like ‘Changing’ that are more reflective in their discussions of youth and childhood. ‘Never Know’ takes a broken relationship and frames it as the girl reflecting on whether or not her once was partner still thinks about her with the knowledge that she was willing to get more serious in the relationship, before coming to the conclusion that it doesn't matter and she should just get over it, even if the guy is still very much not over her
In contrast to getting over someone, ‘Little Girl Sorrow’ tackles what it means to confront personal issues head on rather than try to step around them, while ‘Deepest You’ discusses finding passion in unlikely places, both of which are ideas that come out pretty well in their respective songs, and make me frustrated that we couldn’t have had more ideas like this on the album instead of blandly written filler.
But despite this, I think it would be very wrong to call this album bad as I do like a fair chunk of the songs here. However, I think it is equally fair to say that the writing is often painfully underweight, and the album is incredibly overproduced in spots. But if this is what it’s going to take to shove Ward Thomas closer to the pop charts, I’m on board.
3 / 5
Best Songs: ‘No Filter’, ‘Ain’t That Easy’, ‘Never Know’, ‘Little Girl Sorrow’, ‘Deepest You’
Worst Songs: ‘Rather Be Breathing’, ‘Same Love’
