The new album Looking For America starts off with “Rockin’ The Country” and while the production does indeed rock and is intended to set a mood, it is a song that I found too loud and cluttered for Mark’s more smooth baritone voice. Too often it felt like he was shouting a wee bit too much. Aside from this song, though,” Looking For America feels like a classic Mark Wills album with eight strong songs including the lead single. “Crazy Being Home” is an obvious featured track on the record and it finds Mark singing about how crazy it is for him to be back home after spending so many days and nights in Afghanistan, where the narrator of the song fully expected to pass away in service of America.
With classic ballads like “Wish You Were here” and “I Do (Cherish You)” in his repertoire, one of his most special songs is “Don’t Laugh At Me,” and it’s a song that still resonates, perhaps even more so now in a time of “It Gets Better” anti-bullying internet campaigns and now we have a perfect partner song for “Don’t Laugh At Me” in “Like There’s No Yesterday,” a song that tells you to live life to the fullest and never with the baggage of the past to weigh you down. In other words, live your dreams, laugh at things that come your way, and love those close to you. “The Whole World” is another strong ballad on the record and Mark, like Collin Raye and Joe Diffie, was clearly born to sing a meaty ballad and that’s exactly what “The Whole World” is.
“Smokin’ Gun” is a song about a guy who realizes that he’s dealing with a woman who has begun an affair with another man. A cleverly written song from writers Nicky Cain, Brad Warren, Brett Warren and Chris Lindsey, the song has a mid-tempo groove that feels vintage meat and potatoes ‘young country’ but with a sound that fits with any other song on the radio dial today which has me thinking it could be one of the big hits off of this record, if given the chance and proper promotional muscle. The Warren Brothers and Lindsey co-wrote “Crazy Being Home” with Robin Lindsey as well. Fans of traditional country will really take to the steel and fiddle-drenched “Phantom Of The Opry,” a song about those gone too early greats who help keep the legendary stage cool.
While Looking For America may have gotten off to a somewhat bad start (the song just doesn’t suit Mark Wills, like “And The Crowd Goes Wild” didn’t suit him in 2003), the rest of the record fared much, much better. This isn’t to say that “Rockin’ The Country” is a bad song, because it isn’t, it’s just that it doesn’t fit Mark the way the rest of the songs on the album do, particularly those highlighted here. Here’s hoping that he’s able to secure a few more hits so that he’ll continue to make more records like Looking For America.
Buy: Amazon | Amazon CD
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