Little Big Town Tornado Album Review

Little Big Town Live Up To Album Title and More with New Release Tornado.

Country music quartet Little Big Town (Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook) released their fifth studio album, Tornado, today, and it is sure to rock your world. Whether you’re looking for something mellow or something more party-oriented, with Tornado, Little Big Town has offered up an engaging and multi-faceted record that will suck you right in. This is the type of album that warrants more than a single listen, and with each listen you’ll uncover another layer.

One of the most stand-out features of Tornado is that it is not one dimensional. It’s clear that LBT has more than just a single musical influence with echoes of gospel, blues, folk and rock intertwining with the pop country sound that is consistently present throughout the album. You hear tracks like “Front Porch Thing” that have a down home, southern feel from the a cappella opening to the almost Memphis style blues quality or “Can’t Go Back” with its gospel choir-esque vocals mixed in with songs like “Self-Made” that has a rock/alternative vibe, and you know that LBT is truly invested in the music and that this record comes from a very organic place.

In the eleven songs featured on Tornado, there isn’t a generic note to be found, and each song is as engaging as the next. Whether the focus is on the vocals or the instrumentals or the lyrics, each of the four band members shines, and you get the impression that they put their absolute all into this project. There is a great deal of depth in songs like “Sober” (about living life to the fullest), “Your Side of the Bed” (about love gone south), and title track “Tornado” (about a woman done wrong) that feels very personal, and very relatable. Listening to these tracks feels a little like having a conversation with a friend over a drink as they share their troubles with you, and its elements like these (relatability, realness, etc.) that I think country music fans will appreciate the most.

Now, all this sounds very serious, but Tornado is also a whole lot of fun! There is their number one single, “Pontoon” that country music fans are still going crazy over, along with other party playlist worthy tunes like “Pavement Ends” (complete with some old school banjo pickin’ and hand clappin’!) and “On Fire Tonight” that you’d have to be dead to not to want to get up and dance to! These mix in well with the other more serious tracks to complete the well-rounded track list!

Tornado is the type of project that your casual music fan will love, but also has a lot to offer more hard core music fans, whether you prefer country, folk, blues, pop country or something in between. So, do yourself a favor, and check it out now!

Next on my list? Finding my way to a live Little Big Town show! I can’t imagine how great these songs must sound live and in person!

WATCH Little Big Town’s Tornado Preview:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJvO7sfy71o]

You can catch Little Big Town on CMT as they play VJ on Wednesday, September 12th at 10a (ET/PT), Thursday, September 13th at 9am and Friday, September 14th at 10am.

You can also watch their CMT Unplugged episode including performances of “Pontoon,” two other tracks from their new album, “Boondocks” and a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way“.

Little Big Town, Tornado, Track Listing

1. Pavement Ends
2. Pontoon
3. Sober
4. Front Porch Thing
5. Your Side Of The Bed
6. Leaving In Your Eyes
7. Tornado
8. On Fire Tonight
9. Can’t Go Back
10. Self Made
11. Night Owl