Album Review: Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s ‘The Rest Of Our Life’

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill keep their youthful spirits alive throughout their first-ever joint album, The Rest Of Our Life. The much-anticipated album showcases their strong voices and undeniable passion, but it lacks a sense of depth one would expect on a project from two of the genre’s biggest acts.

The duo has been thrilling listeners with a taste of their new music while on the 2017 Soul2Soul Tour and hearing the album in full proves that it’s a dynamic project. The poignant title track invites the listener in, setting the poetic tone for the rest of the album that covers a wide range of emotion. “Telluride” is easily the album’s most lively track, injecting a free-spirited sense of energy into an album that’s mostly dominated by soft ballads. The engaging number showcases how the couple’s voices blend together seamlessly, and takes fans on a wild ride with a fiery piano while their genuine enthusiasm shines through.

Tim McGraw, Faith Hill – The Rest of Our Life; Photo courtesy Sony Music Nashville

While their voices have a special gift for uniting together with strength, their individual talents also get time to shine. McGraw truly brings the lovely “Cowboy Lullaby” to life with a particularly beautiful vocal delivery, painting a striking image of two lovers lost in the beauty of the countryside, with wild horses and a half moon illuminating above setting the scene for an evening as romantic as the song itself. Hill’s voice shines as well on multiple occasions, like on the emotional “Break First,” where both singers exemplify a sense of passion in a manner only they could. Hill truly takes the lead on “Lie to Me” as McGraw provides subtle, yet effective background vocals on the moving ballad about a failing relationship, with one heartbroken partner proclaiming “you must really love me to lie to me.”

“Devil Calling Me Back” adds a bit of an edge to the album mainly focused on love and relationships. The dark track boasts some power to it where you can hear the haunting effect in both stars’ voices, offering fans some of their most valiant vocal deliveries on the entire project. It would almost seem that “Damn Good at Holding On” is a testament to their longstanding marriage, with the lyrics pointing out the tenacity that comes with standing by someone for the long haul. “Tell me that you love me even though I know sometimes you hate me,” Hill sings truthfully in the first verse before proving the power of their love for one another with the defining line, “the only thing that keeps us from being gone is that we’re damn good at holding on.”

What makes The Rest of Our Life interesting is that the couple touches on a variety of emotions throughout the entire album: passion, sorrow, heartbreak, youth and love as just some of the characteristics that come to mind. While these make for well-rounded topics, the project as a whole is a bit underwhelming considering the duo’s stature in the genre and isn’t as powerful as one would expect from artists as revered as Tim and Faith. But where they lack in depth they make up for with passion, an element at the core of both their love for one another and fans’ endless love for them.