Nashville!

By Featured Contributing Editor Mandy Phillips

With the number of hits spawned by Sugarland’s Enjoy the Ride, it certainly feels like the duo (and former group of three) has been around for much longer than two albums. But it has been the sophomore Enjoy the Ride that has launched the Sugarland - Jennifer Nettles & Kristian Bush - into the realm of country music superstardom. Four releases from the album have been hits for the group, including “Want To,” “Settlin’,” “Everyday America,” and “Stay.”

But beyond the well-known hits, Enjoy the Ride offers plenty of musical gems that feature Nettles’ powerful vocals, which blend incredibly with Bush’s harmonies. As a whole, the album gives off a hopeful, “life is good” vibe which is delightfully welcome in a genre that has a long history of focusing on leavin’ and losin’. The only real losin’ track on the album is “Stay,” which has been the most recent hit released from the album. But even amidst the chillingly emotional vocals and subtle acoustics, “Stay” ends on a hopeful note. The other tracks seem to resonate the idea that while life isn’t perfect, it’s still wonderfully beautiful.

If there is a low point to the album, it’s the misfit song “Mean Girls.” While the rest of the album is punctuated with Bush’s subtle strumming and picking on the mandolin, “Mean Girls” sounds like an unfortunate attempt into a guitar-heavy, drum-banging rock song written by 12-year-old girls. The song simply doesn’t go with the rest of the album, and no doubt falls victim to more than one listener’s “skip” button.

Otherwise, though, Enjoy the Ride is the kind of album that is destined to make superstars out of Sugarland with its lifting lyrics, Nettles’ impressive pipes, and Bush’s well-timed harmonies and instrumentation. Enjoy the ride we did!