From the start, hot and soulful Kip Moore explodes with his new album, Wild World.
He also sublimes two elements throughout this fourth album; blues and depth. They aren’t exactly new to Kip Moore, such as the amazing “Guitar Man”, the last song of his previous Slowheart album in 2017. As Kip has revealed to media, Wild World is his personal album, such as “Payin’ Hard” that expressed hidden emotion about the loss of his father in 2011. To make his emotion out, Wild World became a passionate country album on both his vocal performance and songwriting. Kip’s raw voice is hotter and more expressional than ever. The positive side effects are music gets bolder and more masculine than ever. Most importantly, more vision focused than his last Slowheart album which focus was a blur even Kip established his solid music with his second Wild One album in 2015. A variety type of fine country songs is evenly arranged throughout the album.
The song that reflects enhanced Kip Moore the best is the first song, “Janie Blu”. It’s a stronghold. One two punch from the beginning of the album even the song itself is more acoustic Americana. Kip’s hot voice instantly stoned listeners and grabbed their hearts. His bare vocal is exposing inner himself. This painful love redemption song is spiritually blues. Placing this song at first is the best idea so the listeners can easily go deeper to the whole album. The contrast from the first song is cool with the second song, “Southpaw”. This is a catchy uptempo country song singing about a fantasized outlaw cowboy who Kip doubled himself as an outsider. The title track is also a blues fused country song, similar direction with “This Was Us” from Wild Ones, about a lesson to be a wild guy from mother. Kip’s soft yet storytelling vocal performance and the lyric give the assumption that this mother’s advice comes from her previous pain. “Red White Blue Jean American Dream” is, just like the title, a good ol’ American country anthem rocking like “Lipstick” from Wild Ones that also has a lot of American geographical information (lol). This “Red White Blue Jean American Dream” is also a division point of the album. From this song, the album is shifting to more solid rock-country music like the next song, “She’s Mine” and the following “Hey Old Lover”. The song that Kip’s voice is shining on the second half is “Sweet Virginia”. The beginning sounds like ordinal but his voice is passionately outreaching on the chorus. His straightforward vocal matches with the song’s theme about being clear who you want to have without a game. “Crazy For You Tonight” is like a deep, dark red wine rather than straight whiskey. His slow and deep vocal is long-lasting tasteful rather than instant strongness. The last song, “Payin’ Hard” for the dedication to his deceased father, is surprisingly not a ballad, unlike typical tribute songs. That’s an uptempo folk-country. But the inside of the lyric is deep. The sorrow of an entertainer who has to keep going on for his shows no matter his loved one is critical and regrets he couldn’t be together as much as he wanted. Kip’s honest feeling contained in his vocal performance can’t help but touch our hearts.
No matter what type of songs they are, good melodies occupy throughout the album. Besides the improvement of Kip Moore’s songwriting skills, another improvement is his production skill. Kip self-produced 10 out of 13 songs and co-produced another 2 songs. Compared to the previous Slowheart which he self-produced 7 songs, Kip succeeded to deepen the sound of this product while sharpening each instrumental sound. And this is his deeply private album, self-produced worked the best to disclose his emotion. Kip Moore is 40 years old now, which should help his music more mature and tasteful like aged whiskey.
RELEASE DATE (US): 05/29/2020
OVERALL POINTS: 97/100
- Songs: ★★★★+3/4
- Originality: ★★★★+1/2
- Thrills: ★★★★★
- Song orders: ★★★★★
- Vocal: ★★★★★
- Background: ★★★★+1/2
- Sound: ★★★★★
- Production: ★★★★★
- Strong songs: “Janie Blu”, “Southpaw”, “Wild World”, “Red White Blue Jean American Dream”, “She’s Mine”, “Hey Old Lover”, “Sweet Virginia”, “Crazy For You Tonight”
EXTRA (NOT COUNTED TOWARD THE OVERALL POINTS)
- Title: B
- Album cover: B
RECOMMENDED
- KIP MOORE CONCERT REVIEW. TERMINAL 5, NEW YORK CITY, DEC 3, 2015 (THU)
- LITTLE BIG TOWN CONCERT REVIEW. THE MET PHILADELPHIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA, JANUARY 30, 2020 (THU)
- LITTLE BIG TOWN, “NIGHTFALL” ALBUM REVIEW. Beyond Country Music
- KELLEIGH BANNEN, “FAVORITE COLORS” ALBUM REVIEW
