If you start at the beginning of Tim McGraw’s brand new album, Here on Earth, you might be surprised at the first sounds you hear on a song called “L.A.,” which is filled with lush stringed instruments, which give it an orchestral feel. It could be described as a musical evolution of sorts for Tim, but he says, “I don’t know if I wanted to say it is an evolved Tim McGraw, because I don’t know if I’ve evolved … my wife said maybe I’ve turned 16 during this downtown that we’ve had, so that’s probably as far as my evolution has ever gotten. But I did want it to kick the album off because of the strings at the beginning. I just thought it set a tone for the album.”
Tim describes “L.A.” as timeless, and he says that’s what he wanted his entire album to feel like – timeless. But as you move on from “L.A.,” you encounter songs that are more country, or more pop, some that are tongue-in cheek and fun, and others that are introspective and thought provoking, but Tim says the wide variety of styles on Here on Earth should be surprising to his long-time fans. “If you ever listen to much of my music, I mean, I have a pretty wide spectrum of styles usually in my albums,” he explains. “I’ve always felt like my voice is country enough that I can try anything and make it sound country, so I can pretty much expand my horizons with as far as the styles of music that I do.”
In terms of how the rest of the album sounds compared to the first song he released off the project, “I Called Mama,” which is Tim’s current single, he says, “I would say there’s three or four that stylistically are in this vein. But there’s some that lean more modern and there’s some that lean more traditional, and everything in between. So, I think I’ve really got a pretty wide scope on this record. There’s a couple that are really traditional. Actually there’s one that’s a real sort of throwback to Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell that’s on this record.”
But as diverse as the songs are on Tim’s new album, there is a common thread that holds them all together. Tim explains that going into recording Here on Earth, “I had a concept. Now, that’s not to say that this is really a concept album, but I had an idea when I went into this project that I really wanted to sort of make a tapestry of life. Little vignettes along the way that tells a story about certain things that happen in the progression of life and how that can relate to the listener, and how everyone can sort of find a way to walk through this life on this album.”
While not every song will be relatable to everybody, Tim hopes the listener will find a way to relate to some of the characters in the stories and maybe find themselves in one or two of the songs. “So, that’s what I was trying to do with this album, is sort of paint a picture of life here on earth,” he explains. “And Here on Earth we didn’t really have as a title. We didn’t have the song when we started workin’ on the record. And when we got that song in and we cut it, and started fillin’ songs in around it, it just really made sense that that’s what we were trying to do. And that’s how Here on Earth became the title because of the idea that I had to start with of what I wanted the album to feel like.”
One thing you won’t find on Here on Earth are any songs written by Tim, as is often the case with his albums. But he explains, “I write for every project that I do. Sometimes it makes it, sometimes it doesn’t, but the song has to win for me, and I’ve probably not recorded a few of my songs that maybe I should’ve just because I’m so hard on ‘em. But I want the best song to win.”
There are a few songs on Tim McGraw’s new album that you would swear he wrote, because of how personal and reflective of his life they seem to be, but he says that’s all part of the process of choosing the songs he records. “It has to viscerally hit me and feel like it’s coming from me and it feels like my voice, or I can hear it in my head as my voice and hear my interpretation of it. Because,” he says, “if it’s coming from a songwriter then that’s one generation already passed by the time it gets to me from that song and from the emotional point that it was written. And then from getting to me to the fans that’s another generation that it has to pass through and still hold up. So if a song holds up through all those steps, to me, then it’s a really good song.”
The standard version of Tim’s new album contains 16 songs. There will also be a Deluxe version of Here On Earth available exclusively at Target, with two additional tracks. The album will be available this Friday, August 21st.
Listen for the current single “I Called Mama” from Tim McGraw’s new album on Bloomington-Normal’s #1 Country, B104.
