“If you feel it, chase it.”
This is the tagline quoted by Glen Powell’s character Tyler Owens in the new movie “Twisters,” the standalone sequel to the 1996 film “Twister.” But this isn’t a movie review. In watching “Twisters,” there’s something palpable and distinct to the viewer that transcends beyond the story plot. I’m talking about the 29-piece soundtrack that pulses throughout the film. This extraordinary masterpiece features songs by several country artists. This blog will ambitiously dive into the “Twisters” Soundtrack by exploring the poetic lyrics, the instrumental intensity and the undeniable emotions that wash over the listener as they take in this album.
The “Twisters” Soundtrack is dirt road cruising and all the feels. Let’s ride.
“Twisters” Soundtrack Review: Dirt Road Cruising & All the Feels
Country Rock
The “Twisters” Soundtrack kicks off with country rocker Luke Combs on “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma.” With its thumping guitar riffs and Combs’ striking attack on each word he sings, this song introduces the album with prominence. Lyrics like “So I keep chasing that same old devil” paint a picture of a person unsettled and fighting for something that never seems to get quelled.
Miranda Lambert rollicks the next tune, “Ain’t in Kansas Anymore,“ with a sweet sway of a fiddle accompanying her Texan twang. Without a care in the world, Lambert asserts herself as a “renegade rebel with my pedal to the floor.” She doubles down in confidence with a chant of “na-na-na-na-na,” saying to the boys, “hell nah, I’m not in Kansas anymore.”
Teaming up on “Steal My Thunder,” Conner Smith and Tucker Wetmore croon in an up-tempo flirty song. Talking about riding with a girl in the country, they announce, “you and me together is a perfect storm.” This duet by these country newcomers in congruent harmony is an easy listen, making the listener want to get up and dance. Continuing the boot-scoot on the dance floor is Thomas Rhett’s “Feelin’ Country.” With the familiar honky-tonk pairing of drums and electric guitar, Rhett emphatically sings, “Good God Almighty, my baby’s feelin’ country,” and you can picture couples twirling on the dance floor.
Bringing the Feels
After these first four songs proclaim that this album is a true-blue, dirt road country feat, Warren Zeiders haunts on the song, “The Cards I’ve Been Dealt.” With smoke and grit in his voice, Zeiders talks about being a “gambler since the day I learned to crawl.” He takes an unbridled approach to life, accepting what comes his way with the “cards (he’s) been dealt.” When it comes to love, Zeiders says:
Love’s always a wildcard
A joker in the night
Yeah, the queen’s a quiet killer
If you don’t play her right
And I didn’t play her right
Recently splashing on the country scene, singer Megan Moroney contributes to the “Twisters” Soundtrack with her raspy vocal on “Never Left Me.” She sings about returning to a love she left behind. Asserting she “came back a different me,” Moroney shows us that sometimes leaving leads us to find what we wanted all along.
Bringing nostalgia to the footprint of the album is Lainey Wilson’s “Out of Oklahoma.” Wilson burst on the country scene in the last couple of years, shot straight to stardom, yet hasn’t compromised her country authenticity. As the song starts, the soft pluck of the guitar pulls the listener in. In wistful earnestness, Wilson sings that you “can’t take the home out of Oklahoma, so you can’t take it out of me.” She speaks about how no matter where she goes, this home will always be with her.
“Hell or High Water”
Bailey Zimmerman tilts the “Twisters” Soundtrack on its head with stark truth about pain with his “Hell or High Water.” Singing with a trill in his voice, Zimmerman asks, “Is this as bad as it gets, or is it gonna get better?” Questioning “if this is hell or just high water,” the 24-year-old explains to the listener:
‘Cause I’m fighting and I’m just
Hanging on to any thread of hopeWondering if I should just let go
‘Cause it’s killing me to just keep on climbing
Looking for a silver lining
When it seems like he’s succumbing to the pain and giving up, the singer finds hope and realizes it won’t be an “easy ride” and reminds himself that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” He comes to the conclusion that it’s not hell but is “just high water.” I think this is a familiar theme for so many of us when we find ourselves in hard times. It’s important to keep in mind that even when we are underwater, the water will eventually recede, and we will come out on the other side.
Funk It Back Up
Country rocker Jelly Roll brings the funk back up on the “Twisters” Soundtrack with his anthemic “Dead End Road.” Shooting like a bat out of hell cruising down a dirt road, we envision nothing but trouble ensuing as Jelly Roll sings, “I’m a red-linin’, low-lifein’, anything but law abidin.'” Toggling the country dial back up, country star Kane Brown grooves on “Country Classic.” In it, Brown describes a girl of interest. Coyly playing on classic country song titles such as “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Paint Me a Birmingham,” “If I Could Make it to Cheyenne,” “Amarillo by Morning” and “Man She Feels Like a Woman,” Brown harkens back to the country songs we grew up on.
With his folk-country voice, newcomer Sam Barber takes us on a journey with “Tear Us Apart.” Depicting untethered young love, Barber declares, “We’re just some wild hearts, chasin’ somethin’ that could tear us apart.” Aided by soft and plaintive piano, Tyler Childers quietly renders on the album’s 12th entry, “Song While You’re Away.” Depicting young “starving” lovers who were “hungry” to an “agate white wedding dress,” Childers maintains that both were just “trying to hold on to the lovely” in life. Isn’t this so true with any relationship? We are just trying to find the good and hold on.
Odes to Love Here & Gone
Taking us back to the dance floor, Tucker Wetmore entertains the listener with “Already Had It.” This is a tongue-in-cheek quip on long-lost love. Wetmore proclaims how good life is and that the former lover is missing out. He says, “I’d wish you the best, but you already had it.” And who among us doesn’t have someone in mind when we hear that line? I know I do. Slowing back down and injecting the album with soul is Leon Bridges’ “Chrome Cowgirl.” With his velvet voice, Bridges sings an ode to a love who is “forever young and made of lightnin.'”
Americana singer-songwriter Benson Boone sentimentalizes the listener with “Death Wish Love.” Possessing fierce sincerity, Boone sings that he’s “so terrified that I’m gonna lose you” and will “love you for as long as I get.” Riding the line of danger, Boone encapsulates how intoxicating love can be in this tune and makes the listener feel the ache he’s feeling. Tranquilizing the listener with the speed up of the instruments and lilting his voice to falsetto, Boone holds the listener right in the palm of his hands.
Reminiscent of her 1995 song “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?,” Shania Twain updates her hit in a duet with country/hip-hop artist BRELAND on “Boots Don’t.” They sing that the “heart knows that you’re gone, baby,” but my “boots don’t” as they’re out dancing on the town, partying it up. This song sets the emotions aside and focuses on fun.
Blending Light With the Dark
Texan singer-songwriter Dylan Gossett next enchants the “Twisters” Soundtrack with the banjo-laden’ “Stronger Than the Storm.” Singing to a new love, he proclaims that she is “something that I’ve never had before, wilder than the wind and stronger than a storm.” Infusing exuberance into the album, this tune makes the listener want to hop in a car and cruise down a dirt road without a worry in mind.
Next up is Lanie Gardner, with her pop-flavored song “Chasing the Wind,“ brazenly sings that she’s “chasing the wind” and she’s “doing it my way.” This is a reckoning of going towards a dream with sheer determination. Acknowledging she “may never win,” Gardner’s song is all about going for it, no matter the cost or gain.
Leave the Light On
Sharply grabbing the listener’s attention, “Leave the Light On” is a song one can’t help but have on repeat. This tune is a collaboration between rocker Jelly Roll and independent artist Alexandra Kay. With his whiskey-dripped voice, Jelly Roll admits that “ramblin and wanderin” is all he’s ever known. By meeting the lover in this song, he sings she “gave this lonely life some meaning.” Kay complements Jelly Roll’s gravel with her sweet, piercing songbird voice as she sings:
Ooh, and when the shadows are coming in quickYou threw ’em right off the edgeOh, I still get lost, yeah, but I don’t get gone‘Cause you always lead me back home
This song is an understated love song with the two just needing the company of the other. When dark days come upon them, they find the light in each other. It’s not surprising to see this compelling love song was written by notable Nashville songwriters Hillary Lindsey, Jesse Frasure, Jessie Jo Dillon, Jason Deford and Blake Pendergrass. For reference, perennial favorite Lindsey was a writer on major country hits “Jesus Take the Wheel” and “Girl Crush.”
Continuing the ebb and flow of love, “Before I Do” is a duet by Wyatt Flores and Jake Kohn about the end of a relationship. With two contrasting voices, Flores and Kohn portray the dark picture of a couple “locked in a household war.” “As the rain come(s) pouring down,” the character in the song hopes the other person makes it out “before I do.” Being resigned and giving up, they want the other person to get out before it gets bad.
Party Time
Taking the listener back to party mode, southern rock band Red Clay Strays’ “Caddo County” is a rocking rumbling tune. This song is about paying homage to a county in Oklahoma. The lead singer, Brandon Coleman, sings, “I left home at twenty-three” and went “down to OKC.” Even though he left his country life for the city, Coleman sings that Caddo County “has got a hold on me.”
“Blackberry Wine” by Tanner Usrey follows next and is a two-stepping romp that shamelessly discusses driving fast and going fast in a relationship. From “back seats rockin'” to “blue lights flashing,” this salacious tale was the result of “blackberry wine on a Saturday night.”
“Too Easy” by songstress Tanner Adell is a booty-shaking country dance anthem. Singing “boys are too easy,” Adell encourages the listener to wear those “Daisy Dukes” and “go and get your manicure.” Slyly, Adell claims, “this ain’t my first rodeo, and I ain’t losin’ to ya.” Pumping up the girl power, this song brings fun and sass to the “Twisters” soundtrack.
Complete with a horn section, “Shake Shake (All Night Long)” by 17-year-old Mason Ramsey transitions the record with an old-time big band swing sound. Singing “we’ll be in Honky Tonk Heaven, yeah under neon lights,” Ramsey inspires the listener to get groovy and move.
Closing Time
Segueing from the dance foray, Tyler Halverson offers a mid-tempo tune with “New Loop.” He tells a story comparing capturing love with the kind of rope thrown by cowboys. As a reminder to himself, Halverson sings, “fall and don’t forget to let go of the rope I tangled up again.” In “Touchdown,” Americana band Flatland Cavalry thrusts the “Twisters” Soundtrack into an ominous vein. Blending incessant percussion with the wail of electric guitar, this song grips the listener with a feeling of angst, knowing there’s “pain and fear up in the air, till her reign touchdown.”
With a tender hum, Nolan Taylor’s “Driving You Home” pulls at the heartstrings. Taylor contemplates where he stands in a relationship on this song. It might be the end, as he realizes:
Maybe you’re too far gone
Hope more than anything that I’m wrong
I couldn’t live with myself, leaving you all alone
So I’m driving you home
We all have that love we let go of in the past. Some relationships in life are only meant to last a short time. As much as the remembering cuts us in pieces, we know we are better off without the person. With all the what could’ve been emotions, this song takes us cruising down the dirt road, reflecting as we let go.
Taking Risks
Wilderado, Ken Pomeroy, and James McAlister merge voices next on the Richard Thompson cover of “Wall of Death.” Juxtaposing the lyrics with an airy melody, these artists sing about the symmetry between a carrousel ride and taking risks in life. With lines like “Let me take my chances on the wall of death,” the folk harmony soothes the listener.
Charley Crockett, on a cover of the Stan Jones’ “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky,“ carries the listener to the end of the “Twisters” Soundtrack. This is a well-known tune that’s also been covered by the likes of Johnny Cash and Gene Autry. Singing, “If you want to save your soul from hell, a-ridin’ on our range,” Crocket implores the cowboy to “change your ways today.” With the haunting warning, this song closes out an album that took us dirt road cruising through all the emotions.
“If you feel it, chase it.” This 29-piece soundtrack is an unprecedented compilation of country songs by today’s hit makers and rising stars. Inspired by the movie “Twisters,” these songs take the listener on a ride through all the feels. Cruising down the dirt road of life, there’s always something to chase – whether it be love, dreams or self-discovery. No matter the storm standing in your way, the “Twisters” Soundtrack tells us to just go and get it.
Thanks for reading my review of the “Twisters Soundtrack.” Follow me on Twitter @tootsiepop6 for more entertainment and football content!