Another Four Star Review for the New Taylor Hicks Album!

Here's yet another awesome review for Taylor's new album "The Distance" from a music blog called "popyoularity". Enjoy!

The Distance

4/5 stars (fyi - she gave Kelly Clarkson's crappy album 3.5 stars)

For some music artists there is no life after being dropped by their record label. This is not the case for Taylor Hicks, whose latest album The Distance reaches out to a broad audience and holds its own in the music scene.

Although Hicks had to rely on his own label, Modern Whomp Records, to release this record, it has not held him back. The record is a delivery of country, pop, soft rock and some blue grass tunes. Always setting himself apart from mainstream artists for not succumbing to the modern sound of electronic beats, and instead opting for a large instrumental backing, in his music Hicks’ voice is almost a breath of fresh air.

The record is sure to be a favorite for love tunes such as “Once Upon A Lover” which reflects upon the wanting of a past lover. The track begins with a slow rhythmic piano tune and works its way to a fast paced instrumental song amplified by the trumpet. While many songs on the album are based around love and relationships there are tunes of loss, hardship, and the war of 9/11, which are sure to be well received by the American public. “Nineteen” is a song about an average American teenage solider driven to war by the tragedies of 9/11. With lyrics such as “he’s somebody’s son, in a hole with a gun, in a foreign land, trying to hold onto his American dream,” “Nineteen” is sure to hit home to the patriotic of America, that are an older generation making up a core part of his demographic. Hicks is the second Idol to record a song about the average American, the other being Carrie Underwood’s “All American Girl.”

The most memorable tracks on the album include “What’s Right is Right” (which is the first single off the record) and “I Live On A Battlefield,” because of their catchy lyrics and beat. Both songs will have you clapping and swaying to the music. Hicks allows you to get lost in lyrics such as “all around there is desolation, scenes of a devastation, of a love been torn apart,” and fast paced guitar, drum and piano arrangements.

If you are in the mood to lose yourself to music in a raw form, then give the record a try. The Distance is a record sure to be loved by current and former Hicks fans known as the “Soul Patrol” and to possibly gain new fans for its pure vocal styling and old school sound.

+Juliette Elchuk