Fans of Rascal Flatts can preview the band’s sixth studio album, Unstoppable, on AOL Music’s country site TheBoot.com in advance of its April 7 release. Today, four tracks went live, including the first single, "Here Comes Goodbye," co-written by American Idol season 6 contestant Chris Sligh. Warning: You’ll get excited when you press play and hear something that sounds vaguely industrial, but that is just the sound before the guys’ spoken intro to each song — not country’s pop-iest act spreading its wings into a third genre.
Our quick take: "Here Comes Goodbye" is what you’ve come to expect from Rascal Flatts — a power ballad that lets lead singer Gary LeVox’s love-it-or-hate-it voice sail and guitarist Joe Don Rooney’s six-string wail. The mid-tempo "Love Who You Love" is radio-friendly (and something you’d catch yourself enjoying in a waiting room). "Forever," with its dramatic melody and harmonies, is a smash hit waiting to happen (with a tearjerker video that will no doubt rival their "What Hurts the Most"). "Things That Matter" is a stripped-down story of the stresses we all face today. Though the guy in the song leaves the office at 5 p.m. — lucky him.
Look for one new song a day until the album’s release: "Once" (April 1), "Why" (April 2), "She’d Be California" (April 3), "Close" (April 4), "Holdin’ On" (April 5), "Unstoppable" (April 6), and "Summer Nights"* (April 7).
*Probably not the song from Grease, but we wouldn’t put it past them.
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Here Comes Goodbye is so sappy and over-produced it makes me want to take a hostage. Rascall Flatts are InSync with a fiddle buried in the mix.