With their sophomore album, A Great Big World impresses the listener with a stunning tracklist of pop melodies and heart wrenching songs that are perfect for any mood. The tracks are reminiscent on A Great Big World’s first album titled “Is There Anybody Out There,” but now, “When A Morning Comes” shows growth and potential for A Great Big World to gain control of most listener’s Top 25 Most Played playlist.
Full of pop melodies and a few slow ballads, “When A Morning Comes” is perfect for singing along at the top of listener’s lungs. The opening track, “All I Want Is Love” grabs the listener right away, with an infectious melody that encourages the listener to sing along, almost perfect for a live show.
Another song, “One Step Ahead” is reminiscent of “Say Something,” A Great Big World’s 2014 hit. The song skyrocketed to #1 on the charts after the band played it at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, instantly becoming one of the biggest songs of 2014. “One Step Ahead” is now chapter two to that sound and for listeners who wanted a slow, beautiful ballad it really hits the spot. “Too scared to see what this could be, but I can see it now,” Ian Axel sings throughout the song.
One of the standout hits on the album includes “Kaleidoscope”, which starts with a funky guitar part and can be compared to a Walk The Moon or Lumineers song, but with A Great Big World’s own twist. The song has great lyrics for anyone to sing along to, especially at a live show or in the car with friends. This song absolutely has the potential to be played on the radio.
“Hold Each Other,” one of the singles from “When A Morning Comes” is by far a song that really captures audience members. The song definitely defines the new sound that A Great Big World is going for and is a really fun, poppy sound. The great mixture of piano chords, lyrics and the duo’s voices really builds into a great pop song.
Although there are a heavy amount of pop songs on this album, it is still filled with the emotionally impacting songs listeners who are familiar with “Say Something” will resonate with. Particularly, “Oasis” speaks on love and coining someone as their “oasis,” and has both a great piano chord progression as well as a great beat behind it. For listeners who are looking for a song to dance to at their wedding, look no further.
A Great Big World definitely didn’t hit the sophomore slump. There’s normally a trend in the industry to immediately go to a bad second record, but A Great Big World really, in a cliche way to say it, knocked this one out of the park. Listeners definitely have something to identify with and lyrics are really personal, clearly written from experiences.
Download: Honestly? The entire album. But if you had to pick a few songs, “All I Want Is Love,” “Oasis,” and “One Step Ahead”
5/5
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This album definitely is a five outta five. One of my favorites to come out this year. Favorite song has gotta be “All I Want Is Love” http://bit.ly/AGBW-AIWIL