Love On the Inside (Deluxe Fan Edition)

iTunes Review

Sugarland's third album proves that their fearless front-woman Jennifer Nettles can get away with anything. The flirty opener and first single "All I Want To Do" is an instant roadhouse dance-floor smash. The song simmers with a hot country rock verse that struts up to a sultry chorus with scant lyrics where Nettles merely elongates the "ooh" in the word "do" before easing back into the second verse like it was a hot tub. Then on a bonus track she and Kristian Bush take on the epic "Ah hey oh ma ma ma" harmonies on an ambitious live cover of the Dream Academy's one hit wonder from 1985, "Life In A Northern Town" (with guest appearances by Little Big Town and Jake Owen). In the rootsy "Steve Earle" the Americana rock icon gets put on a pedal steel raised pedestal, but not without Sugarland's signature sense of humor. Nettles' soaring vocals in "Love" put the power back in "power ballad" and on "It Happens" she reinvents Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" with a catchy twang-pop ditty that wraps a funny silver lining around the working person's everyday snafus. It wouldn't be surprising if Nettles' next career move involves acting.