6-Pack - EP

Editors’ Notes Country music has always had its share of gleeful drinking songs and good-time odes to rural recreation and big-city bar-hopping alike. Florida Georgia Line came along in the early 2010s and updated country music’s party soundtrack—made it tighter, brawnier, glossier—for a generation that likes to have a little hard rock and hip-hop in the mix. The duo, made up of Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, has moved through other modes over the last several years, from suave and gentlemanly to sentimental and nostalgic. But with a new producer, Corey Crowder, on board for the 6-Pack EP, Kelley and Hubbard circled back to their feel-good sweet spot. There are breezily reverent gestures, one patriotic (“U.S. Stronger”) and the other romantic (“Second Guessing,” a ballad showcased and sharpened on the TV show Songland). But these are bookended by prime examples of escapism: “Beer:30” is a jokey talking-blues jam, “Ain’t Worried Bout It” spreads half-time rapping and breezy sung lines across a trap beat and resolute rhythm guitar, and “I Love My Country” is a toast to down-home sights, sounds, and flavors with heartily swaggering riffs and hooks.