Hi, everyone! I know I haven’t been posting as much recently, but I do have quite a few mini reviews that are mostly finished, so expect to see multiple mini review posts pretty soon.

But for now, I’m reviewing Luke Combs’ new album, Gettin’ Old.

Last year, I reviewed Luke Combs’ third studio album, Growin’ Up. And while the album didn’t really click for me, I have a ton of respect for it. I mean, I can respect almost all music, but that album in particular I respected a ton, even though I’m not really a fan of the album. And also, “Going, Going, Gone” is a song that I absolutely love!

Despite not really being a fan of that album, I decided to check out Luke Combs’ new album, Gettin’ Old. This is only the second Luke Combs album I’ve listened to, and it’s his second album in less than a year.

Anyway, did I end up liking this album more than Growin’ Up?

Well, yeah, I did!

Luke Combs’ emotional song writing here really stands out, and it leads to some absolutely incredible songs … even though I wouldn’t say I love the album as a whole. I mean, the album is over an hour long, and part of it is that I’m often not the biggest fan of really long albums. But there are some long albums that I love … but I think the big difference for me between longer albums and shorter albums is that the longer the album is, often the songs I don’t like feel more like a slog to get through. And are there songs on this album that I don’t like? Yes, there are. But still, I do mostly like this, and I easily like it more than his last album.

There’s a lot to really like in the instrumentation, with some small details really standing out, like the piano in “Joe”, the fantastic vocal production in the chorus of “My Song Will Never Die”, and the way the acoustic guitar sounds in “Take You With Me”.

I really like the mixing and production on this album, which sounds really tight for the most part, and I mostly like how the snares sound.

But I think the biggest thing that holds it back for me are some of the vocal melodies being underwhelming to me. That’s not to say there aren’t vocal melodies I like here. Because there are some great ones which are a big reason why I love some of my favourite songs on the album, like “You Found Yours”, which has one of my favourite choruses on the album, as do “5 Leaf Clover” and “My Song Will Never Die”, the latter of which I already mentioned having great vocal production in the chorus, and I love the piano in this song, too! But about the vocal melodies, while there are songs like those ones which have some great chorus melodies, there are a lot of songs here which don’t have a lot in the vocal melodies that really stands out to me, like “Still”, “See Me Now”, “Joe”, “A Song Was Born”, “Love You Anyway”, “Tattoo on a Sunburn”, and “Fox in the Henhouse”. And vocal melodies are a huge factor in how I feel about music, and had I liked the vocal melodies more, this would probably be among my favourite albums of 2023. Also, I haven’t even mentioned the melody on the chorus of “The Part” … I’m not super familiar with Luke Combs’ discography, but I do know “Forever After All”, a deluxe edition track from his 2019 album (the song was released in 2020), and it’s one of my favourite Luke Combs songs. Well, the chorus melody on “The Part” sounds very similar, but not in a good way, as it takes a turn in the melody which is really off-putting to me … and maybe if I hadn’t heard “Forever After All”, I wouldn’t feel the same way, but keep in mind I said ‘maybe’, and it does sound very awkward.

Now, why am I nitpicking this much? Well, like I often say in my reviews, I’m a big fan of vocal melodies, and when I don’t love the vocal melodies, it makes it a lot less likely that I’ll love an album. And it’s probably the biggest thing that holds this album back for me, an album which—like I said—would probably be among my favourites of the year if I liked the vocal melodies more.

But while I’m on the topic of the things I don’t like about this album, I’m going to mention Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman. I know this is a SUPER controversial thing to say, but if I’m being honest … personally, I am not a fan of “Fast Car” at all. And I don’t feel like explaining in this post why I dislike that song as much as I do, but I’m sure I’ll write about it eventually. Anyway, do I like Luke Combs’ cover of it? Well, no … I mean, it’s a version of the song, “Fast Car”, and that is pretty much automatically enough for me to not like it. But, well, I like it better than the original, because at least I like the sound of the guitars better. Still, though, it’s arguably my least favourite track on this album.

But anyway, I already mentioned the production, instrumentation, mixing, etc. And now I want to mention the lyrics, which are one of my favourite things about the album. And it’s not like the lyrics give me a lot to say, but there’s just so much about the lyrics that I really love. For example, the song “You Found Yours”, which celebrates special things in life, and seems to be about how which things are the most special to people really depends on the person. There’s also “My Song Will Never Die”, which acknowledges that none of us are going to be alive forever, and that we should make the most of the time we have.

The album ends with “The Part”, which shows the dark side of fame and getting lots of attention, and it’s a great song—yes, one that I would love even more if I liked the chorus melody more, but I still love this song.

And there’s a lot more to like here lyrically, too, but I’m not going to mention every song. But feel free to listen to it for yourself, of course … and I recommend that you listen to it. It’s really good!

Overall … this is an album that I really like but don’t quite love. Again, a lot of the vocal melodies are underwhelming to me, and it is pretty long and I don’t find it to be super consistent, with a few songs that just don’t click for me at all, but there’s enough here that I really like for me to give it a 7/10!

Thanks for reading my review of Luke Combs’ new album! Just to give a quick update on what’s coming up on my website … as you may have noticed, I’ve been posting a lot less reviews in the past few weeks than I was before that. I’ve just been finishing up a mini review post that I’m hoping to have posted within the next day or so. And I have a bunch more mini reviews that I’ll be posting before too long. So, expect to see a lot of mini reviews soon, a lot of which are of albums from weeks ago, like the new Gorillaz album, the new Model/Actriz album, the new Xiu Xiu album, and more.

Also, as of right now, the plan is to do individual reviews for the new Fall Out Boy album and the new Lana Del Rey album … I’m not expecting to have those reviews out in the next few days, though. It’ll probably be in April. But if I post a few mini review posts without including those albums, that’s why.

Also, I’m hoping to have my top 100 songs of 2022 posted in April. I was hoping to get it done in March, but at this point that’s not happening.

And with that, I’ll be back with more reviews soon! As always, feel free to let me know what you thought of Luke Combs’ new album and/or what you thought of my review! Also, as always, feel free to request albums for me to review … no guarantee I review them, but I’m always happy to hear requests!

Keep in mind that I’m not the biggest fan of country music, and that’s one reason why I didn’t love this album, but I still really like it, and if you’re into country music you’ll probably like it even more than I did! But anyway, thanks for reading!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “Hannah Ford Road”, “Back 40 Back”, “You Found Yours”, “See Me Now”, “Joe”, “A Song Was Born”, “My Song Will Never Die”, “Where the Wild Things Are”, “Take You With Me”, “5 Leaf Clover”, “The Part”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Fast Car”, “Fox in the Henhouse”