All music fans just gained an album to jam out to in the form of Rich Owen’s Redline. Redline is the first studio album by Rich Owen, and was released on July 19th, 2024.
The album begins with its title track, which in itself begins with an audio recording of a car race. The song contains a progression very reminiscent of classic country, making the track a tried-and-true representation and tribute to its genre. The term ‘redline’ refers to the maximum speed a car can go. So when Owen sings about “pushing that redline” he’s talking about pushing up the car’s speed to its limit. This track, being so classic sounding and about such classic material like car racing, makes it the perfect track to open the album and an amazing representation of what’s to come in the rest of the tracks- a tribute to classic country with Owen’s own personal take.
The title track is immediately followed by “Good and Gone”- an emotional track about breaking up and losing a constant character in your life. The singer opens the song with the line “Your lipstick stains the glasses in my cupboard”. An image that is so subtle yet so powerful for listeners who have experienced similar emotions. Owen also takes the title, a fairly common phrase, and uses it in an unexpected way, saying “You took the ‘good’ out of ‘good and gone’”. Instead of the partner just leaving his life and both of them moving on from all of the troubles of their relationship with her, she left and took every good memory they had together. This is such a powerful and relatable concept for so many people, and it’s told in a way that’s so digestible for all types of music fans, not just avid country listeners. This song is definitely one that shines in this album, clearly using his own personal experience to make something amazing. This track perfectly showcases not only Owen’s voice, but also his abilities as a songwriter and performer.
“Good and Gone” is perfectly juxtaposed by the following track “Line Dance King”- a track about getting out all of the stress of the long work day by dancing with friends at a local club. In this track, Owen once again exhibits his range by singing as the character of the “line dance king” rather than himself in the first person. It’s always a great measure of skill when a performer can create a world within their album with characters separate from their own, and Owen does that so well in this track specifically.
One of the slower, acoustic and piano tracks on the album is “Unbreak My Heart”. In this song, Owen is “Waiting on love to make me whole”. Owen speaks of using love to tend his wounds from previous relationships instead of fully healing. Following “Good and Gone”, this track even further cements the emotional range of the album, displaying Owen’s ability to go from happy dance-worthy tracks to gut-wrenching heartbreak in mere minutes.
The album ends with “That’s the Fun”. True to its name, this track is a fun and upbeat way to end an album that acts as the perfect representation of Rich Owen as a person and his artistic point of view. The song’s chorus starts with the line “that’s the fun of a summer rain”, cementing that album’s status as an emotional yet feel-good album that so many listeners can enjoy. Owen uses common images like cool rain, summer love, and bonfires to create an iconic summer track about letting go of the stress of everyday life in order to enjoy all of the best parts of summer, even as an adult, when we generally tend to lose a lot of our motivations for weekend getaways and summer fun.
Redline is such a pleasant surprise from a debut country album. It uses high-energy country beats to create happy tunes that are so easy for anyone to dance to and enjoy, as well as piano and acoustic ballads that pull on the heartstrings of anyone who has had their heart broken. This album will soon be making it into the playlist of country and non-country fans alike for its ability to be blasted over a car radio on a long road trip, or even just a ride to work. Rich Owen is definitely an artist to watch for.
Reviewed by Steph Stone
