Throughout the course of country music history vocal bands have always managed to become fixtures on the country charts from the Browns and the Carter Family to the Everly Brothers to Alabama to Diamond Rio and Little Big Town. Love and Theft can now find themselves included on this list as they release their debut album World Wide Open to the world. Featuring singer/songwriters Eric Gunderson, Stephen Barker Liles and Brian Bandas, Love and Theft came together organically and when each distinct vocalist blended their voices together, the group knew they had something.
That something they have is evident on each and every track where beautiful harmonies find Love and Theft blending as if they were one cohesive voice. Each track on World Wide Open was co-written by a member of the band. The lead single “Runaway” (read our review here) is currently inside the Top 20 and it works as the perfect introduction into the trio as the song showcases each vocalist and that stellar harmony which drives the band. “Dancing In Circles” is an interesting song that finds Love and Theft channeling Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young as they sing a song about the ‘are we’ or ‘aren’t we’ stages in life. “Slow Down” is a beautiful ballad that is about the perplexing speed at which life can come at us. It may seem like it’s written at a special person but it is actually sung to life itself. It’s also one of the most acoustic songs on the record and while there are strings in the background, they never drown out the vocals and they feel a part of the song, not the focal point, like they do in so many other country songs nowadays.
“Me Without You” is another organic, acoustic track on the record with plenty of fiddle and steel and banjo in the mix and it’s a song about a guy who describes how he’s “not me without you.” It’s a pretty, pretty ballad that really would work great on country radio as it feels like it’s almost the perfect marriage of harmony, melody and acoustic arrangements. “It’s Up To You” is an interesting song about a self-centered, ‘leech’ of a person who finds a way to take advantage of things handed to them, rather than working on what they have. It’s as philosophical as an artist can get and it’s basically stating that life isn’t going to be as easy and life is about making yourself work within the world. This one would be another good choice for a single due to its marriage of honest lyric and interesting melody and harmonies. Speaking of harmonies, check out the great “Can’t Go Back,” to find something that could have been on a Diamond Rio or Little Big Town record.
Love and Theft certainly have crafted, along with producers Robert Ellis Orrall and Jeff Coplan a record that features a plethora of singles worthy of being radio hits. What some might find surprising is that the lyrics serve to give feelings or thoughts about a variety of topics and the album isn’t completely centered only on love and it instead feels like a cohesive debut album from a band that definitely knows their world is changing and that they’re ‘on the cusp’ of something. World Wide Open is an album that gets better with each and every listen and it really sticks with you, which makes it a contender for one of the best releases of 2009.
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