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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Tulane chapter.

          Since September 8th when Thomas Rhett released his album Life Changes, social media has been buzzing because of the love that his album shows for his wife. Some tweets focused on how much he loves his wife, Lauren, while other tweets parodied the devotion that other Twitter users seemed to hope for.

            The album itself does showcase Thomas Rhett’s love for his wife making the rest of us fall in love with both the album and their relationship, but it also breaks out of the box of a classic country album by including a few Pop and R&B inspired songs. Although I do not consider myself to be a fan of one particular type of music, I am not usually one to listen to country music unless a stray Dixie Chicks song finds its way onto one of my Spotify playlists. However, Thomas Rhett’s most recently album opened my mind and ears to a new type of country music that mixes traditional country music with more mainstream sounds. For anyone who has never thought country music is for them, and for people who have been fans all along, below are descriptions of all of the songs off of Life Changes including the best lyric(s) and a link to the song.

“Life Changes”

The title song, “Life Changes”, is my favorite song off of the album because of the journey that the song takes you on starting in Rhett’s college dorm room and ending in his current life with his wife and two daughters. From looking for a date to his Spring Formal, to proposing to his wife at age 22 despite what other people thought, to adopting a daughter from Uganda, to having another daughter with Lauren, to having his songs that he thought no one would ever like on a Wal-Mart shelf, Rhett describes how crazy life can be at times as things don’t always go according to plan. However, the main message of the song is that, despite all of these changes, he wouldn’t change anything about where he ended up, which makes choosing only one of the well thought out lyrics extremely difficult.

  • Best Lyric: I remember the day I told my Daddy and Mama you’re gonna have a grandkid, yep/From Uganda, that’s right, we’re adopting/And she is the cutest little girl that you’ve ever seen/Well I was wrapping my head around being a dad/A bigger wrench got thrown in the plans we thought we’d had/Now Lauren’s showin’ and got one on the way/Yeah that’s two into two, hey, what can I say? Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/4Vxu50qVrQcycjRyJQaZLC

“Craving You” (feat. Maren Morris)

The album opens with “Craving You”, which includes a drumbeat with more of a pop influence, but Thomas Rhett’s singing voice and the banjo sound on the chorus combine to remind listeners that he is a country singer at heart. “Craving You” is the perfect song for anyone who is more of a rock music fan because of the backup vocals Maren Morris provides, which lead the song to ultimately remind me of Rascal Flatt’s many crossover hits.

“Unforgettable”

The second song on the album will explain all of the tweets about how much Thomas Rhett loves his wife as he explains every detail of the first time they met throughout the song. This song is an upbeat, poppy song that you may hear in a Rom-Com while the main characters are spending the whole day traipsing around New York City. However, if the song is at all cheesy, the cute messages in the lyrics, especially the chorus, make up for it.

  • Best lyric: You brushed away your blonde hair/And you kissed me out of nowhere/I can still show you the spot/Where everything went down
  • Best lyric: Oh, I told you I was gonna marry you You probably didn’t think that it was true
  • Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/30MM5jWpUmOxtTNd9Ey5LZ

“Sixteen”

Rhett goes more classic country in the song “Sixteen” as he describes learning how to drive and wishing he was 16, then wishing he was 18 and an adult, and finally that he was 21 and able to drink legally. The lyrics of “Sixteen” demonstrate that the grass is always greener and that living in the present is much more important than wishing you were living in the future, which Rhett realizes by the end of the song when he sits on the porch with his wife living in the moment.

  • Best lyric: Now I’m twenty five, and I’m drinkin’ wine with my wife at home/Got a couple dogs and a couple songs on the radio/And we sit around, and we laugh about how we used to be/When all we cared about was turning sixteen
  • Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/3pJkBPHadRAxBBo484RipI

“Drink a Little Beer” (feat. Rhett Akins)

“Drink a Little Beer” is easily the song with the most country influence, including a little help from Thomas Rhett’s father and country music star, Rhett Akins. The string instruments as well as the mention of blue jeans, beer, and Tennessee also help build the traditional country twang of this song.

“Marry Me”

In “Marry Me”, Rhett opens the song with the description of the wedding of a girl’s dreams, which originally made me think that he was returning to singing about his wife, but the chorus later reveals that, while the girl is getting married, she isn’t marrying him. With a switch from his plans to cry when no one can see, supposedly about his love for his future wife, to crying when no one can see because he lost the girl to someone else, Rhett completely transforms the song from one of love to one of heartbreak.

“Leave Right Now”

Rhett returns to more of a pop song feel for “Leave Right Now”, especially during the chorus, which creates a sound similar to that of “Back to You” by Louis Tomlinson. “Leave Right Now” describes a moment between two people, most likely Thomas and Lauren, as he proposes that the two leave a party and get to know each other better away from everyone else.

“Smooth Like The Summer”

The intro to “Smooth Like the Summer” could remind anyone of summer as a series of people whistling and clapping opens the song and continues throughout the rest of the song. This song is a prime example of Rhett’s combination of country and pop sounds as he mixes claps and a soft guitar sound with an electric guitar and electronic background beat.

“When You Look Like That”

The ninth song on the album also combines country and pop sounds as a banjo-sounding instrument mixes with Rhett’s country accent, an electric guitar solo, and a swanky bass background sound. “When You Look Like That” tells the story of a fun night out as Rhett describes someone who keeps him from being able to end the night because of how perfect she looks.

“Sweetheart”

Another one of my favorites, “Sweetheart” opens with a shortened version of the chorus playing on a vinyl record, which sets the tone for the rest of the song as Rhett supports the previous tweets by including another song about how much he loves his wife. The sprinkles of “shoo” and “shoo-do” in the background of the song combined with the vinyl sound from the intro give a feeling of old-timey, classic romance with a vision of poodle skirts and milkshakes at a diner. However, the comparison, “You’re smooth like whiskey, fine like wine” allows for a more mature feeling of love.

“Kiss Me Like A Stranger”

The R&B influence that I referenced earlier is the most prominent in “Kiss Me Like A Stranger” as the song opens with a beat, which continues throughout the song, best described as a “slow jam”. Although this song can also be classified as a love song, it is a more realistic love song than an innocently romantic song because it opens with a lyric discussing working hard and paying bills and eventually works its way back to getting to know each other from the basics. As the title suggests, Rhett suggests starting from scratch and holding each other like they’ve never met and falling in love all over again.

“Renegades”

If “Renegades” were on a Taylor Swift album, it would be on Red because of the obvious country influence with an understated pop sound similar to that of Swift’s songs “Red” and “Holy Ground”. Despite some similarities, “Renegades” completely holds its own as a song about breaking the rules as Rhett tries to convince his partner in crime that everything will be alright if they cause some trouble and don’t sleep that night. The song seems to tell a coming of age song as the girl breaks away from her good girl persona to have some fun, which makes “Renegades” the perfect adventure song.

“Gateway Love”

Because it was the first song I heard on the album, “Gateway Love” was on a loop whenever I listened to Spotify, whether I was working out, doing homework, or just enjoying the song, so I owe my love for the rest of the album to this song. The song opens with a slow beat similar to a heartbeat before jumping into the song describing a relationship that had turned sour because of the girl’s tendency to move on to a new man and leave her gateway love behind. The comparisons that Rhett draws to gateway drugs (“I didn’t get you high enough”) and eighth grade crushes demonstrate the inconsistency of the relationship as he recognizes that she will always be moving on.

“Grave”

“Grave” is a fitting end to the album because it wraps up all of the love that Rhett demonstrated for his wife as he explains how even after he passes, he will still be in love with her. Although he can’t take any material items with him, he will take his love for her throughout his life on earth and beyond, which makes “Grave” the most appropriate way to conclude the album that Twitter users rightly described as a whole album about how much Thomas Rhett Akins loves Lauren Atkins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My name is Madison and I am from Glen Mills, PA! I am currently a senior at Tulane and am excited to be Tulane's Campus Correspondent this year.
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