At long last, after “Old Alabama” and “Ala-Freakin’-Bama”…
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[6.14]
Alfred Soto: Their success as staggering as their beards — after ZZ Top’s the plushest in popular music — Alabama deserve reevaluation, as does most ’80s country before Ricky Skaggs and Dwight Yoakam stripped it down to the chassis. The keyboard chimes and polite guitar counterpoint show their skill, but if I’m as enthused as I would be about post-“Need You Now” Lady Antebellum then blame my tortoise shell exterior.
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: Alabama’s been hitting #1 on the country singles chart since 1980, and while I don’t expect this to join their 33 other chart-toppers, it’s a fine addition to their discography, a slow “don’t run off just yet” dance that sounds kinda timeless. It also sounds like a demo for Toby Keith: it’s his style of ballad, and even in his key.
[6]
Anthony Easton: Alabama has been producing music for as long as I have been alive, they have basically been producing the same music, and it is usually good to excellent. It’s like that brilliant neighbourhood BBQ joint that scales successfully.
[6]
David Sheffieck: On top of a slow build that The National might someday aspire to, this is a magnificent showcase for Randy Owens’ vocal work — haggard yet powerful, he turns a solid lyric into an elegiac triumph.
[9]
Brad Shoup: The spent-tank quality of Owen’s vocal puts over the feeling of end-of-life valedictory. I can’t imagine that’s where they were going; I think this is just a plodding, glum enterprise.
[4]
Iain Mew: I’ve never listened to Alabama before, but even coming from a different background it’s in some ways instantly, comfortingly familiar. Instrumentally, it could pretty much pass for a Snow Patrol song. That makes the differences in vocal approach, leading off in multiple different directions, all the more intriguing — lead solid and confident, bringing in emotion without dwelling in it, backing vocals with the prominence and sheen of radio past. It works to add depth and their musical way of doing things has got me convinced, if not the JLS-level guilt-tripping of the lyrics.
[7]
Ramzi Awn: If a man wrote this song for me, I would probably give him my heart, and then ask him where he learned to sing like that. It would be like a Hugh Grant movie. That doesn’t make it great. That doesn’t even make it good. But it does make it real.
[6]