Florida Georgia Line (Georgia's
Tyler Hubbard and Florida's
Brian Kelley) broke onto the contemporary country scene in the spring of 2012 with the infectious summer single "Cruise," a song that blended cruising country back roads and farm towns with ragged drums and layers of rock guitar, and sounded a bit like an amped-up, next-generation
Brooks & Dunn. The duo seems poised for stardom going into the second decade of the 21st century, a time when country seems to be as much
AC/DC as it is
George Strait or
George Jones (although both Georges get name-checked a lot these days in country songs one can hardly imagine either of them singing).
Florida Georgia Line released a five-song EP, It'z Just What We Do, produced by
Joey Moi, behind "Cruise," and
Here's to the Good Times, the group's first official full-length album, contains all five of those songs, plus six more, which were also produced by
Moi. It's an aptly named album, because good times are at the heart of everything here, with songs like "Cruise," "Tip It Back," and "Party People" pretty much summing up
Florida Georgia Line's philosophy. This is an album based on summer energy, drinking beer, taking shots, driving back roads, and the romantic glories and possibilities of Friday and Saturday nights with nothing to do but look for those good times. Fair enough. This kind of pop/rocked-up version of country is obviously here to stay, and is probably the commercial future of the whole franchise.
Florida Georgia Line are pretty good at it, even if someone like
Keith Urban actually does it better. ~ Steve Leggett