Welcome Home - Zac Brown Band

Dipping back into country now, with Zac Brown Band's latest effort. The group has been gaining a lot of success in the UK for an act of this genre, and previously it's been easy to see why. We haven't heard any single from this record yet, so everything will be completely fresh to us. So, without further ado, let's see what they have in store with Welcome Home.

As always, here is a reminder of our rating system.

1 - Shouldn't have been recorded

2 - Filler

3 - Above average filler

4 - Killer

5 - Career defining masterpiece

Track 01 - Roots

John - 3.5/5

Tilly - 3.5/5

Track 02 - Real Thing

John - 2.5/5

Tilly - 2.5/5

Track 03 - Long Haul

John - 2/5

Tilly - 2/5

Track 04 - 2 Places at 1 Time

John - 2.5/5

Tilly - 2.5/5

Track 05 - Family Table 

John - 2/5

Tilly - 2/5

Track 06 - My Old Man

John - 1.5/5

Tilly - 2/5

Track 07 - Start Over 

John - 2.5/5

Tilly - 2.5/5

Track 08 - Your Majesty

John - 2/5

Tilly - 2/5

Track 09 -  Trying to Drive [Feat. Aslyn]

John - 2.5/5

Tilly - 2/5

Track 10 - All the Best [Feat. Kacey Musgraves]

John - 1.5/5

Tilly - 2/5

Conclusion

John - I was expecting this to be an album that I would love, considering that I loved what I had heard off of their previous record, but it was almost the exact opposite. I would consider this to be one of the dullest albums we've reviewed so far. It was all too bland and unimaginative to be any good in my opinion. As Tilly has said, it's like they've decided to try and make a serious country album to reassure their old fanbase that they are still very much a country band, and it really does feel so forced as a result.

Roots is the redeeming feature on the record - a strong, catchy track that combines a good instrumental with great lyrical content and vocals. But apart from that, this is a barren album with few memorable songs. Something that I wanted to love, but simply couldn't. 

Overall Score - 2/5

Tilly - This is truly one of the most shocking albums I've heard recently. Aside from the opening track Roots, Welcome Home solely felt like the band was trying to regain it's traditional, 'serious' country fanbase by giving them a dull, dated and unimaginative record. It had a few redeeming features - as always, the vocals were strong, and at times the lyrics were indeed touching. However that still doesn't disguise the fact that for a band as good as this one, this was a dire album. 

Overall Score - 2/5