It’s an electric, overpowering song, and Mr. That mood peaked with “I Drive Your Truck,” about losing a family member to war. Brice’s performance an intense feel, which was compounded by his minimal backing: just Travis Bettis on guitar and Reggie Smith on keyboard. It’s one of several stark standout tracks on the new album, songs that lent much of Mr. The two wrote a song together (with Jon Stone), “That’s When You Know It’s Over,” for Mr. He resides in the comfortable middle, and he owns it.Īlso occupying this territory is the clever and promising singer and songwriter Jerrod Niemann, who has a sense of humor Mr. He’s not a provocateur and he’s not overly ambitious with his songwriting or singing. Brice - built like an ex-college football player (which he was) after a few years in middle management - has quickly established himself. A relative newcomer, though he was at the fringes of Nashville success for many years, Mr. Brice’s thing, soft songs that roar and roll forcefully like a tractor-trailer. Listen to some of the best new recordings here.
Classical Music: 2021 was a year of reawakening for the art form.Jazz Albums: Even the big-statement albums this year had a feeling of intense closeness.Pop Albums: Recordings with big feelings and room for catharsis made the most powerful connections.Best Songs: A posthumous political statement and a superstar’s 10-minute redo are among the 66 best tracks of 2021.It’s vivid, bloody stuff.įrom Lil Nas X to Mozart to Esperanza Spalding here is what we loved listening to this year. Brice’s singing gets nervier and more sweaty, hard with bravado but teetering on a thinner and thinner edge. Brice sings versions of those phrases three times: first, as the narrator second, as the wife considers another man and finally, in the words she unleashes on her husband as he threatens to undo her for good with his disregard. “He used to love her like crazy/You couldn’t pull ’em apart/God, she felt so unbelievable in his arms,” he sings, his voice swelling as he concludes, “She don’t wanna leave/She just needs him to be that way again.” Brice’s new album, “Hard 2 Love” (Curb), which was released on Tuesday, he slyly updates the theme, weaving it into “That Way Again,” a heartrending tale of a shattered marriage. Brice wrote several years ago, became a major hit for the Eli Young Band last year. Is he a wide-eyed celebrant of everlasting love or a kooky raconteur of life’s little offbeat surprises?Ī little of both, as it happens, especially when it comes to the subject of crazy, which straddles the two. In 2009 Lee Brice released “Love Like Crazy,” the first single from the album of the same title, a pulpy croon that shuttled between two seemingly competing sides of Mr.