Jake Owen - 'American Love' (Album Review)

Jake Owen's new album American Love is an interesting affair. It's a pop country album that has its feet planted firmly in Nashville while stretching its arms out to California. This isn't the first album I've heard in the last few months trying to balance country with a touch of California. Jon Pardi's California Sunrise did it as well. Albeit Pardi's album still leans more on a traditional straight forward country vibe. Owen's album has a different vibe musically and captures more of that sunshine feeling in some ways.

American Love has a clearly Beach Boys inspired cover and a sound that feels very pop country with healthy doses of sunshine bliss. I think the album has a nice easy, listening vibe while maintaining its country swagger. Maybe for description sake, I think of Jack Johnson meets pop/country. This is a pretty slick sounding produced album, but it works well for this set of songs. The music on the album is perfectly complimented by Owen's pop country vocals. The lyrics are pretty much what you expect from the pop country genre, they're pretty good though, and they have some good emotional themes at times like in the song "You Ain't Going Nowhere". Overall I'd say they have some deep moments, but it's a very accessible, radio friendly, and relatable message.

The title track "American Love" kicks off the album and it's a great introduction to the album both lyrically and musically. It's solid and I think it's a good introduction to the album. It's fairly upbeat with the whole "sunshine country" vibe. "VW Van" has a pretty neat, kind of just get in the van and drive, vibe. It's one of the best songs of the album. It is a bouncy sounding, fun song that I think is made for summer weather. The same goes for "Good Company". It should probably be the song for Tiki night at your favorite bar. The last two songs on this album end it extremely strong. The album ends with "American Country Love Song". It's a single from the album and it's insanely catchy. I like the vocal delivery in the first part of the song and the chorus can easily get stuck in your head. There are also some nice guitar leads throughout the song. It is easily one of the best Jake Owen's songs I've heard.

While this album may not overly wow me because it's pretty straight forward pop/country, most of the time, the songs on this do shine and are really listenable. I really like the musical direction and artistic approach on this album. While the the album deals with both somber and uplifting themes lyrically, the musical direction and musical vibe really keep things balanced in either direction and creates this great summer vibe that I really enjoy. Owen has been releasing albums since 2006 and I think this might be his best album. I think it is my favorite. This is definitely a good warm weather album.