Where We Started＜Colored Vinyl＞

As an album title, Where We Started conveys a similar sentiment as Country Again, the two-part album Thomas Rhett began in 2021 but put on the backburner so he could get this 15-song collection out in the marketplace. Rhett claims the title track for Where We Started kicked off another round of songwriting that stood separately from the Country Again project, thereby necessitating the release of a lengthy record smack dab in the middle of a magnum opus. If this seems likes a distinction without difference, thats not wrong. Rhett is working with a larger canvass than he did on Country Again: Side A, using the extra time to bring in such guests as Riley Green, Tyler Hubbard, Russell Dickerson, and Katy Perry. Perhaps Perrys presence suggests that Where We Started may be an overtly pop move from Rhett, but thats not the case. "Where We Started," his duet with Perry, does simmer to a modern R&B rhythm, but that merely positions it squarely within the country sounds made in the wake of Sam Hunts Montevallo. Its also not far removed from "Bring the Bar" or "Paradise," two breezy, mellow pop songs with a distinct yacht rock vibe which are, in turn, not far removed from the nostalgic "Slow Down Summer" or the carefree "Simple as a Song." Save for the tender opener "The Hill" and maybe "Death Row" -- a mawkish attempt to see the good in everybody made stickier by Hubbards hamminess --everything on Where We Started is sunny and sweet, an ideal soundtrack for any afternoon activity from housecleaning to day drinking: it sustains its cheerful mood from stem to stern. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine