The first full album from Tim McGraw and Faith Hill is an inspired effort, even though some of its songwriters may surprise you. The title cut, for instance, features pop ginger Ed Sheeran on its credits, while Meghan Trainor contributed to "Roll the Dice." With that said, though, there's some mighty fine country instrumental elements on the propulsive "Telluride." In fact, this first Hill studio album in a long time, is also the most country she's sounded in quite a while. And it's a welcome return. McGraw is his usual great on the cowboy song, "Cowboy Lullaby," and he also gets to sing the sad song - of course - with "Sleeping in the Stars." Three women, including Lori McKenna, wrote the album's sexy sex song, "The Bed We Made." Hill sings lead on "Break First," which sounds like pop filler, and is the weakest cut. But the banjo-accented "Damn Good at Holding On" more than makes up for that deficit. (By the way, there sure is a whole lot of borderline cuss words, many "damns" and "hells.")
Hill proves what a soulful singer she is when she wants to be with "Speak to A Girl," a single these two have been trading verses on during their successful and extended Soul2Soul World Tour. The album closes with the slightly funky "Roll the Dice." It's light, lyrically, but still fun.
If they continue to make albums this good, let's hope this won't be the last husband-and-wife collaboration between McGraw and Hill. McGraw has always stayed truer to his country roots than Hill, and he continues this much appreciated pattern with "The Rest of Our Life." McGraw always makes Hill better when they're singing together. Heck, more albums like this one just may make all the rest of our lives a little bit better.