Rascal Flatts

1	Prayin' for Daylight 3:38
2	This Everyday Love 3:05
3	While You Loved Me 3:31
4	Some Say 4:00
5	See Me Through 6:25
6	One Good Love 3:50
7	It's Not Just Me 3:55
8	Waiting All My Life 3:09
9	From Time to Time 3:50
10	Long Slow Beautiful Dance 3:58
11	I'm Movin' On 4:04

Barnes & Noble

The hunky heartthrobs of Rascal Flatts could give pop's boy bands a few object lessons in believable emotive singing. Free of the gimmicky melismatic flourishes that pass for deep feeling , Gary Levox (get it?), Jay DeMaracus, and Joe Don Rooney rely on close, soaring harmonies, plaintive lead vocals, and state-of-the-art pop-country tunes to help them deliver a treatise on sunny romances and heartbreaking loneliness. The gilded opening track, "Prayin' for Daylight," is full of screaming fiddles, vamping electric guitars, frantically strummed acoustics, cannonlike drums, silky background vocals, and herky-jerky rhythms, all of which makes the singers' pleas for reconciliation with a long-gone gal ever more heart-tugging as the song goes on. It's a monstrous cut, a blueprint for a mainstream country smash that owes its rock-influenced production to the hit-happy sound Mutt Lange crafted for his spouse, Shania Twain. And while there's a lot of production bluster here, Rascal Flatts can deliver the goods in a sparer setting too. "From Time to Time" bounces along at mid-tempo pace with some nice mandolin and piano touches, and the voices are way out front, heartfelt and strong, more effective for not having to battle screaming guitars. "I'm Movin' On" melds a plaintive voice, a gospel piano, an evocative fiddle, an atmospheric mandolin, and little else, driving the story of a newly single man who vows to live his life full measure and not dwell on the mistakes of the past. It's as thoughtful an album closer as "Prayin' for Daylight" is a kick-ass opener, and it shows a side of Rascal Flatts that ought to be explored more fully in the future. David McGee

All Music Guide

Rascal Flatts are three average, nice guys. They make contemporary country-pop that's nice, but ever so slightly and satisfyingly a cut above average. Nothing on their eponymous debut deviates from the norm -- it's squarely down the center of the mainstream, edging closer to pop than it does to real country -- but it's sweetly endearing and unassuming. Take the lead song and single, "Prayin' for Daylight," for example. It's almost defiantly square, but the trio doesn't ever realize that it's not hip to be square -- the very quality that makes it so much fun. They revel in their warm harmonies, bright production, catchy mid-tempo pop tunes, and ballads of heartbreak and love that always seem happy. Rascal Flatts never really changes their approach at any point during the album -- many of the zippier songs sound a lot like "Prayin' for Daylight" and the slower numbers are just slower variations of that tune -- but that doesn't matter, since this is an amiable, well-crafted, professional record. Are there some slow moments? Well, yes, but they pass by easily, thanks to the surface gloss and the boys' cheerful attitude. Rascal Flatts may not be weighty, but it's not supposed to be. It's designed to be a sunny, pleasing modern country-pop album, and that's exactly what it is. Stephen Thomas Erlewine