Album Review: “Growing Up Is Getting Old” by Jason Michael Carroll

 

Jason Michael Carroll’s sophomore album, which he considers a career making project, Is definitely an interesting one to say the least. The long haired “Alyssa Lies” singer attempts to follow up his debut album with a project of more casual tunes that attempt to capture that same majesty his debut album provided, but how well does it work?

Carroll’s second album falls a little short of the quality of his debut project, a common ailment for sophomore albums, for one huge reason. This time around Carroll is much more in tune with radio friendly and saleable material more than just simply good material. This is evident through his first offering from the album “Where I’m From” which offers a popular and relative subject matter without the accuracy of a great piece of songwriting to back it up. However, this seems to be a rather common downfall for even the most experienced artists these days, i.e. Keith Urban, so it would be foolish and unfair to judge this album purely on this factor alone.

Another significant ailment that plagues Carroll’s second album is its lack of flow and consistency. His debut project contained a decent and actually attractive flow from song to song that kept the listener tightly wound around what was happening in every song and the emotional roller coaster it was at times. This album is not as entangling. While it does contain some very powerful material and some rather enjoyable entertainment quality songs, the middle of the project specifically lacks much of a connection to the rest of the project which leaves it scattered at times and causes the listener to lose interest in some parts.

While the opening track “Happened On Saturday Night” proves to be a stage song worthy of every moment, “That’s All I Know” falls under the radar and fails to hold itself up or hang strong enough to helps the material before it guard it from that “next” button on the CD player.

There I’ve said my negativity’s, but other than that there’s pretty much nothing that degrades Carroll’s further attempts to solidify his position as a lasting country artist. He continues to build on his strength as a balladeer with the powerful “Tears” and “Hurry Home” while also showing off his entertainment quality and wild side with “Growing Up Is Getting Old” and “Barn Burner”. So pretty much every angle of Carroll’s talent as both a singer and an entertainer is represented in this project as well as some songwriting which, in my opinion, might need a little more practice.

Jason Michael Carroll’s follow up to his smash debut project may not be as good, but it’s not so far off that it’s worth not buying. If you loved his debut album, this one’s also a keeper. As a contemporary country artist, Carroll has what it takes to really shine in this business and he shows a lot of growth and maturity in almost every aspect of this project. he’s more relaxed, casual, and, most of all, more himself in this album which is a plus. However, he has sacrificed that spot on effect and flow of both the writing and overall presentation for the sake of this more relaxed and casual presentation. Overall Growing Up Is Getting Old is a relatively enjoyable project that will hopefully continue the success of one of the genre’s brightest stars and provide him even more room for growth as time goes on.