Today's Pick

Country quartet Little Big Town is back in a big way onto the airwaves earlier this year with "Little White Church," a rollicking, sassy, bluegrassy lead-off single from their fourth studio album, "The Reason Why," which hit stores in August, and has brought the band to the top of the country albums charts for the first time. Right in their wheelhouse, the vibrant song re-established the group as a vocal force of nature, once again earning their place on radio playlists.
They say timing is everything, and momentum has now shifted some with the release of their second song "Kiss Goodbye" to radio on October, and have just released their new video on CMT for the introspective ballad song. Producer Wayne Kirkpatrick, sets the initial haunting tone with an icy and isolated triad of piano chords, but band member Phillip Sweet takes it from there, delivering verses with quiet warmth, slowly winding up for the earth-rattling, four-part harmonies that hit hard in the chorus. Sweet's lead vocal is slightly grainy and soulful, contrasting with the layered, slick and surprisingly more pop-oriented production. The lyrics, atypically for a Hillary Lindsey co-write, are simple without being overly familiar.
The video was shot in Adams, Tennessee, where the group worked with director David McClister for the first time. Band mate Jimi Westbrook offers insight into the video's content: "It's about maybe a summer love that is blossoming and happening and for some reason has to end." Over even-keeled light piano melodies and blues-driven acoustic guitar, two-part harmonies and mid-tempo percussion kick off the second verse, followed by the group's stylistic four-part harmonies in the hook as they sing about moving on from a relationship. The simple lyric with a focused message about letting go with love might not be the visually video-ready kind that prevails in country music, but is head-nodding real and relatable all the same.
"The Reason Why" is an interesting single choice, since it's markedly more pop than many of their previous songs. But it's still unmistakably a Little Big Town song, and it's a cut that shows the dynamics of the group's highly-refined sound. It may take a while to get this one going at radio since it's such a slow, downbeat song, but from both an artistic and commercial standpoint, "Kiss Goodbye" is a risk worth taking. A beautifully bittersweet song, carried out in Little Big Town's trademark perfect harmony, makes you believe and keeps you coming back for more. It represents new straight-up pop territory for the foursome, which it does.