On March 20, Luke Combs’ new album, “The Way I Am,” was released. Some of the songs in the album include “Back in the Saddle,” “My Kinda Saturday Night,” “Days Like These,” “Wish Upon a Whiskey,” and “Ever Mine.” Each one of these songs has its own story to it, and the album was inspired by Combs’ real-life experiences as a father and a husband. Combs released this tracklist to show the desire to feature personal songwriting and high-energy country music. Before the full album was released, he released songs from the album as singles, and it was really cool to hear the sneak peaks of the album.
“Back In The Saddle” is about returning to power and getting back to what you enjoy doing, and it contains a strong western theme to it. This song strongly talks about the cowboys, pistols, and the idea of honor to a legacy. This song is energetic and brings the electric sound to country music. The storytelling in the song definitely has a strong visual aspect, but there is no deep meaning to the song because of how it demonstrates getting back into relationships. It is important to discuss recovery from a heartbreak and getting back into what you like doing, but too many songs are about that in my opinion, leading to the message losing some of its originality. This song is definitely more of a song to jam out to. Overall, this is a fun song, but I wish it would speak to people on a higher level.
“My Kinda Saturday Night” depicts the message of a blue-collar worker enjoying the end of his workweek. Like the first title listed, this track is another high-energy song. I don’t connect with the lyrics, but it has good imagery of Saturday night in his eyes. This song certainly falls into the stereotype of country music being about beer, trucks, and women. I wish it contained a wider image than what is talked about in most country music songs. I really did like how the chorus of the song was very visual with lyrics and somewhat catchy. In general, I think the song was ok. Definitely not one I would play on repeat, but one I would want to hear every once in a while.
“Days Like These” is such a beautifully written song. It’s about being grateful for the small things in Comb’s life, and not being materialistic. The acoustic guitar and the message of the song are absolutely gorgeous. It has a much deeper meaning than the songs talked about above, and it can relate to a lot more people. The message of the song is truly important for the world right now, and the instruments chosen for the song tie in so nicely. I think it’s the best song on this new album.
I did not love “Wish Upon A Whiskey.” This song demonstrates the theme of resorting to drinking alcohol to try to numb the pain from a bad breakup. I think the piano at the beginning is beautiful, and Combs expresses his emotions very well in the song. I don’t think it is that catchy for a song, and it doesn’t have as universal a message as some of his other songs. When saying universal, he is very focused on his personal view of the breakup for him, and not all can relate to that exact message of the experience he is having. It’s definitely impressive when musicians express their breakups through song, but I feel like Luke Combs has been writing many breakup songs and wish there was more diversity in his lyrics. All in all, this song is okay, but not one of my favorites because of the known message of the song in country music stereotypes.
Lastly, “Ever Mine” is a sad and stunning song, written from the perspective of a soldier writing about his life. It shows the uncertainty of war and how love is shown through a letter. Alison Krauss gets featured in this song, which, in my opinion, makes this song ten times better. I love how it has more of a bluegrass tone to it, and I think that is perfectly written and recorded. It was a really sweet message overall.
Overall, “The Way I Am” is okay. It had more of a country-rock sound to it, and while it’s instrumentally strong, I wish the album had more of an acoustic sound to it. I also wish the songs were a little more universal and less tied to the topics of beer, women, and trucks. Country music is good, but it needs to be expanded beyond these topics. Combs did a good job with some of his songs being less that stereotype, but there should have been a few more of them. Same for emotions. I wish there was more emotion to most of his songs in this album. The songs with emotion in them are great, but not too many of them were included in the album. Overall, I liked the album, but wished there were more acoustic and fewer “jam out to” songs. 3.5/5
