If Katy Perry has called you the ‘Brad Pitt of Country Music’ when you reached the last few on American Idol, it’s unlikely you’re going to give a second thought to what Andy from Maximum Volume thinks about your debut EP.
But here we are, and ‘Promiseland’ by Colin Stough is with us, and it rather underlines why everyone is tipping the 19-year-old to be huge.
This six-track EP doesn’t even include his already mega hits, ‘Bad Day’ and ‘Talk To Jesus,’ but the title track ‘Promiseland’ has been released before. So you already know it’s less country and more Nickelback, making good on the claim from Paramount’s recent US rock program that country is the new rock ‘n’ roll.
‘Lonely Hour,’ the other one previously released, is the ballad. The heartbreak is in the guitar solo, and continuing a theme, Richie Sambora would be proud (and, as far as I’m concerned, he is Bon Jovi).
‘Till The Day One Day Does’ is one of the best. How a 19-year-old sounds this world-weary is quite a feat, but he does (if you’ll pardon the pun), and it’s genuinely brilliantly done.
The fiddle-tinged ‘If Not For Me’ is supreme, think Garth Brooks if he’d gargled sandpaper.
He sounds much older than his years. ‘Sitting in a smoky room with a Marlboro Light,’ he sings as he laments the wrong choice. To be fair, you’d imagine there are a lot of hearts left to break.
He writes a few of these, including the superb ‘Sleep Tonight,’ on which he lays his struggles bare and hints at a kind of Chris Stapleton-type future.
Look, a star is born here. Yet it’s not the TV exposure or the good looks that are going to take Colin Stough to the top. Rather, it’s the voice and the songs that will take him to the ‘Promiseland.’
Rating: 9/10
REVIEW: COLIN STOUGH – PROMISELAND (2023)
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