Album Review: Florida Georgia Line - Here's To The Good Times...This Is How We Roll

With this album, FLorida Georgia Line have expanded their already Platinum Here's To The Good Times and showcased a little bit of where they'll be heading on their second full-length album. See what we have to say about this 2013 version of the popular album.

With the past calendar year bringing over 10 million track downloads and well over one million copies sold for Here’s To The Good Times, Florida Georgia Line was in the tough position of having no time to offer a full-length follow-up album nor was the album particularly ‘done’ with three straight multi-week #1 hits in “Cruise,” “Get Your Shine On” and “Round Here” while fourth single “Stay” is well on its way to garnering a similar fate. The duo of Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard were then left with the problem of also getting their popular crossover remix of “Cruise” with Nelly on one of their albums so it made an entire lot of sense to give fans five more new songs along with “Cruse” and DVD disc with all of the music videos from the Republic Nashville duo to date.

They co-wrote “This Is How We Roll” with Luke Bryan and Cole Swindell earlier this year and that allowed them to invite Luke to this song, a song which is definitely well within the musical pocket each of the song’s writers have in their music and an obvious choice for single at some point. It’s another sing-a-long, small town love type of song but does that matter at this point, it’s a song that’s all about feeling good with people you love to be with.  As with previous songs from the pens of Ashley Gorley, Chris Destefano and Shane McAnally, “Take It Out On Me” is a melodically interesting and moody mid-tempo love song that’s not about partying (something BK and Tyler promised) and instead finds The duo singing about a guy who is willing to be the man a girl runs to whenever she’s got problems with her relationship.  

“People Back Home”is a thank you to the families of the duo as they perform a song with rapped verses by Tyler and the choruses (and bridge) performed by BK. Perhaps the best new song on this expanded album is none other than “Headphones,” a song with great mandolin licks, haunting melodies and a strong lyrical twist on a popular theme in music. Finally, “Hands On You” is another potential smash hit (isn’t everything by FGL at this point?) from Brett James, Rodney Clawson and Chris Thompkins that melds the traditional steel guitars and mandolins of Country’s melodic past with moody guitars and a programmed modern melodic beat which helps guide the track behind the lyrics about the mood to wanting to be alone with the girl you love. 

It’s easy now (maybe even popular for people who are tired of radio’s insatiable appetite for party songs) to find reasons to not like the music Florida Georgia Line does and while they do blend genre sounds together, it’s a strong mix and these five (six with the “Cruise Remix”) breathe some more life into the Duo’s debut Here’s To The Good Times (Original Review here) and allow them to show where their music is likely heading when album #2 does arrive (probably a year from the release of …This Is How We Roll. These guys are stars and nothing about this album suggests that they’re only still on the beginning of their journey to superstardom. 

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