Colbie Caillat - "Along the Way"
The album cover sets the expectations...
I’ve never listened to a full album from Colbie Caillat, but she’s somewhat familiar. I mean, who doesn’t know “Bubbly” or “Brighter Than the Sun”? Since we hadn’t scored much GOOD, standard Pop by the end of August,1 I figured ‘why not’, right?
Colbie Caillat’s Along the Way is her first Country album.
Thus, the cowboy hat in the album cover. And, I mean, I don’t believe it would be possible to create a Country album cover more generic than ‘image of singer in cowboy hat looking into the sunset’. I mean, do I need to link everybody to Bo Burnham’s ‘pandering’ bit, or have we all got it at this point?
To add to the list of questions on why Colbie Caillat is releasing a Country album in 2023: her last album, The Malibu Sessions, released in 2016, was (according to Wikipedia) R&B and Reggae.
The answer lies in that huge, 7-year gap. Caillat has released one album in that time – as the vocalist for Gone West, the band she formed with her then-fiance, Justin Young, in 2018. The band was Country-Pop, and released an album in 2020. Caillat and Young also split in 2020, and the band broke up, but I guess she enjoyed the style and, for at least this one album, has transitioned her solo efforts to the genre.
And, frankly, Along the Way is much better than most mainstream Country these days. The album leans into a blend of Pop Country and Folk Pop, and the biggest singular bit of pandering is, honestly, the album cover. I mean, there are gratuitous mentions of horses and trucks, and I’ll get to the closing track in a bit, but most of the tracks are relatable to people in more than one walk of life. And, for me, that is an absolutely vital element for any Folk (or Folk-derivative, which Country is) artist.
The album does strongly remind me of the stylistic approach to the genre that The Paper Kites utilize. It’s very laid-back with a blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation creating a thick foundation for Caillat’s vocal melodies. And Caillat is as talented as she’s ever been – she’s a great vocalist.
However, I find myself really torn on this album, as well. Some tracks are incredibly strong, but on many, the band2 and/or the production outshine Caillat, and that makes it difficult to score because, as a solo album, the band is really there to support her, and I don’t know anything about how Caillat writes or composes her music.
Still, there are some incredible moments on tracks like “Pretend”, “Worth It”, “Meant For Me”, and “I’ll Be Here” (which is a duet with Sheryl Crow). But if you delve into Along the Way to hear them, I strongly advise using headphones in order to better hear and comprehend the depth of the instrumentation, because that’s where most of the best moments are. The melodies have not, as of yet, managed to decently differentiate themselves enough to get stuck in my head after just two listens. Much of the album has issues sounding kinda ‘samey’.
Finally, the last serious issue the album has is the messaging in the final track, “The Other Side”. It opens with a Centrist critique (“Sticks and stones are flying/Clouds above are crying”) and then takes a hugely dismissive tone (“This trouble’s like a feather/The wind will come and blow it all away”) that absolutely reeks of privilege and apathy.3
History has shown, repeatedly, that refusing to take sides is just as harmful as advocating for the wrong side.4 And that’s all Centrism is – standing in the middle and thinking you’re better than everybody.5 And the existence of this track is an issue which supersedes the album cover – it’s worse than just pandering.
But, given Caillat’s extensive Charity work, I’m trying not to hold it against her too much.
Ultimately, there are a lot of really mixed elements on this album. It sounds great, but it’s also very flat across its 13 tracks, and the melodies aren’t particularly strong. It’s good for what it is, and for the genre it’s in, but then there are these big blunders that just make me want to gag. The bad taste left by the very last track really just makes it linger, too – like finding something you’re allergic to in the very last bite of dinner.
And yet it was more enjoyable than the albums from Luke Combs and Darius Rucker.
There are a few songs I’m definitely going to hold onto here, but I don’t need the whole album, and I’m really iffy on the idea of trying another Caillat album going forward.
Rating: Yellow
I mean, Kelly Clarkson has really been it on that front. Even including everything we’ve added since the end of August, when the decision was made to include Caillat, Clarkson’s Chemistry is the only sort of mainline Pop album that’s rated Teal or higher. We’ve got Whisperpop, Dance, Orchestral, and even an Art Pop album, but not much that’s straightforward.
Consisting of Craig Young, Paul Mabury, Kris Donegan, and Adam Lester.
This may not be a political outlet, but no art is ever created in a vacuum, and I will never ignore an artist’s political statements.
When there’s a ‘wrong’ side. Sometimes there are straight-up political disagreements. Marginalizing and dehumanizing a minority group, though, isn’t a political disagreement. When one of the sides is pushing for that, it’s wrong. Unequivocally.
As opposed to Moderates, who just happen to fall into the ideological ‘center’ because that is genuinely where their beliefs lie; I’ve got not problems with Moderates. Centrists move and shift to stay in the middle; they’re Aaron Burr.