Home State

About

With his debut album, 2018’s <i>Home State</i>, Jordan Davis tapped into a sound that combined country, R&B, pop, and a touch of his beloved Southern rock to build a collection of catchy and (mostly) lighthearted tracks. Released just before the Louisiana native’s 30th birthday, <i>Home State</i> spends most of its runtime concerned with the typical affairs of youth and young adulthood: love and lust, chiefly, drawing on his experiences growing up in Shreveport and attending Louisiana State University. After graduating in 2012, Davis headed to Nashville to become a songwriter—he co-wrote every tune here—but it wouldn’t be until 2016 that he inked the deal that resulted in <i>Home State</i>. Rhythm is the big driver of <i>Home State</i>, and the album’s lead single, “Singles You Up”—about waiting in the wings for a deadbeat boyfriend to leave a woman—has it in spades, with multiple punchy guitar riffs and skittering hi-hats. “Take It From Me” adds a little of that Southern-rock swagger and a touch of funk as Davis revels in the bubbly joy of a new romance. With songs like “Sundowners” and “Slow Dance in a Parking Lot,” he aptly pulls the tempo down to a dreamy sway. Even though he gets into a little bit of hard times regarding his love life—on “Tough to Tie Down,” Davis laments his free-spirited lover leaving—the mood never turns bleak; it’s all just part of life. It’s not until the thoughtful closer, “Leaving New Orleans,” that listeners get a taste of the kind of songwriting evolution Davis would head towards on 2023’s <i>Bluebird Days</i>. Over horn flourishes that nod to the city’s storied music scene, he considers The Big Easy’s landmarks and textures as bittersweet reminders of a former flame and realizes he must move on. It foreshadows the more mature subject matter—including marriage and family—that he would explore five years later.

via Apple Music

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