Album Review: The Hardest Part
Allison cowrote every song, including one you might remember Trisha Yearwood singing, Bring Me All Your Lovin'. From the electric guitar intro to the way she sings "bring", this song is a raw, gritty appeal from a woman who just wants her guy to love her, without all the accessories. But the quest for love ends there, because the rest of the songs bathe in sadness.
Is It Worth It speaks to a love that's just about dead. It can be a philosophical approach that causes you to question if bliss justifies a heartache equally as potent.
Marty Stuart's mandolin in the title track yells, "This is country music!" Don't agree that "loving turns to leaving every time"? Well, when you first listen to The Hardest Part, you might wonder about that. Aside from the basic breakup in relationships, Allison's mandate there rings true for all love, even in marriage, because it will beg you to consider that life is finite.
Unless you read the lyrics, you might have a hard time figuring out that the first word of It's Time I Tried is "sorrow". The consistent pauses after every line show you that the person in this song doesn't want to forget about lost love, but that they're making a concerted effort to move on. The artist speaks some of the lines midway through the song as a voiceover, and I almost expected her to continue this method through to the end.
Allison's yummy accent resurfaces shortly before the beginning of Think It Over. This tune moves a bit faster than most of the others, but the instruments tend to drown out her vocals.
The prettiest song on the album is No Next Time, three words which you might gloss over, if you didn't catch them in the chorus. Ordinarily, strings might be confusing in a country tune. Here, they accentuate the absence of love, as memories pull on heartstrings, reliving echoes of what once was. Lonesome Bob steps in to offer excuses and lies on behalf of the man who makes empty promises, the second time the chorus comes around. Allison sings harmony here that will make your heart stop.
The last track, according to the back cover, is Feeling That Feeling Again. But, patient listener, it's not the last track, no! As the tenth song fades out, Allison invites you to briefly experience unbelievable grief, as she tells you the story of one fateful sunrise, when her parents were lost to her forever in Cold, Cold Earth. It is country music in perhaps its purest or most effective form - a story set to music, and a true one, at that.
Feeling That Feeling Again prematurely ended to give life to Allison's ultimate heartache. It made me consider that love can be lost in far worse ways than I could ever experience.
