Rascal Flatts Feels Like Today CD

Live Recording



This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Rascal Flatts: Joe Don Rooney (vocals, electric guitar); Jay (vocals, bass guitar); Gary (vocals).
Additional personnel: Jerry McPherson, Tom Bukovac (electric guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Jonathan Yudkin (banjo, mandolin, fiddle); Tim Akers (accordion, keyboards, synthesizer); Steve Nathan, Gordon Mote (piano, Hammond b-3 organ); Lonnie Wilson (drums).
Rascal Flatts are such nice guys that it's hard not to find their music rather endearing, even if it's drifting ever further toward the middle of the road. On their debut -- highlighted by their breakthrough hit single "Prayin' for Daylight," a cheerful, infectiously low-key country-pop tune that remains their best moment -- there was a hint of a looseness to their performances, a suggestion that for as tasteful as the band was, they weren't too reserved. Bit by bit, that looseness has been refined, and the group has unapologetically wound up in the middle of the road by the time of their third album, 2004's Feels Like Today. Since they always traveled close to the center, this isn't a huge change, but it is noticeable one, because the tempos don't change as much, the dynamics are muted, and the album consists almost entirely of ballads. There isn't anything as effervescent as "Prayin' for Daylight," then, nor is there anything that's truly memorable as a single, but the guys sure are likeable, even when they're singing unabashedly formulaic adult pop music that has only a hint of country to it. And that likability goes a long way, making Feels Like Today a good, relaxing listen, even if it's a shade closer to background music than it needs to be. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
If anyone in the 21st century still thinks that country music is all HEE HAW hillbilly tunes, one listen to Rascal Flatts's FEELS LIKE TODAY proves that nothing could be further from the truth. More Backstreet Boys than Buck Owens, Rascal Flatts are in may ways the musical embodiment of the true New South; these boys may acknowledge their place in a rural history, but they're just as likely to be watching basketball as rodeo riding. Throughout, lead singer Gary Levox shows off his finely honed contemporary-R&B-esque vocal chops, giving even Usher a run for his money. The production style is suitably bright and punchy, with every twanging Telecaster lick, cracking snare, and sparkling cymbal crash perfectly in place. The group is at its best on the power ballads ("The Day Before You," "Bless the Broken Road"), when the music's Nashville heart, urban sheen, and Levox's yearning vocals mesh in just the right quantities to please an unusually wide cross-section of listeners.