Tracklisting:
Hey Mama (2:57)
Ships In The Night (4:15)
Count On Me (3:05)
Sooner Or Later (3:56)
Chasing The Light (4:26)
Learning To Love Again (4:24)
Down (4:01)
She Got The Honey (3:15)
Young Dumb And In Love (3:24)
Rochester (5:37)
Seventeen (4:23) **iTunes Only
Two Hearts **MatKearney.com Only

Fans of Mat Kearney who enjoyed his last album, City in Black and White, may not warm up quickly to his new album Young Love. However the album may go down in history as being one of his best ever.

Musically Kearney doesn’t really stray from his acoustic folk/pop sound that has defined his career. However he does a very good job of mixing it up. “Hey Mama” is a good opener musically, it gets the listener into a bit of a dance mood. It certainly serves as the feel good opener that was missing on City in Black and White. “Count on Me” mixes Kearney’s signature sound with a hip-hop back beat. “Chasing the Light” is a solid rock track and is contrasted nicely by the slower “Learning to Love Again”

Lyrically the album originally comes off as a quirky attempt at love songs but a closer listen reveals something more. “Chasing the Light” is a song about the struggles of this life while we chase after Christ. “Hey Mama” may fall into the cheesy category as it follows a girl who wants nothing more than to be married. “Learning to Love Again” is probably the strongest song on the album written in the form a letter to a close friend Kearney writes “That was the real you singing Hallelujah looking down a barrel, Hey brother we’re all learning to Love again” It’s a song you have to listen to all the way through to get the full effect, something Kearney is very good at when he slows down.

All in all Young Love May make the list as one of the best albums of 2011. At least it will be one that fans of Mat Kearney will be talking about for a long time, a good milestone for his career as we look forward to the next.

Record Label: Aware / Columbia / Inpop
Album length: 10 tracks: 39 minutes, 27 seconds
Street Date: August 2, 2011