Jake Owen’s “American Country Love Song” is sonically safer than “Real Life,” but true to what the singer says he’s hoping to do with his fifth studio album, expected this year. It’s a blast of nostalgia that leans hard on a big, beer-in-the-air chorus.

Owen’s spoken-word verses recall scenes of blossoming love in any city or state, even though the finer details are Florida-specific. It’s a wonder that he didn’t write “American Country Love Song” (Ross Copperman, Ashley Gorley, Jaren Johnston), as the story begins and ends in his home state of Florida. His storytelling has become more nuanced. Perhaps more than any song he’s released to radio, you forget who the singer is as you caught up in a familiar plot.

The pre-chorus of “American Country Love Song” builds into an anthemic chorus that dominates a three-minute-plus long track that feels much shorter. Effervescent steel guitar swirls around the drum-heavy arrangement, but none of this gets in the way of Owen’s voice and storytelling. “Real Life” was a song that split the room. This second single from his next album is much more unifying.

Did You Know?: While he didn't write this song, Owen says he's constantly writing. He has a guitar case full of songs he's penned.

Listen to Jake Owen, "American Country Love Song" 

Jake Owen, “American Country Love Song” Lyrics:

“Two tickets to a concert / It’s a Daytona airbrush T-shirt / Wondering who’s gonna kiss you first / You know what I’m talking about / Hey baby whatcha doing tonight / It’s butterflies and Bud Lights / Under the stars and on the stripes of a beach towel in a Spring Break town.”

“It’s playing in the night air / Through the speakers all night long / Couple kids just livin’ / That American country love song.”

Chorus:
“And every town, in every place / There’s a boy who’s trying to take a chance and dance and find a way to run away with her heart / In the back of an old Ford truck / In the bar, just looking for luck / In a pair of oh my blue eyes, let them fireworks start / That American country love song / Ain’t ever gonna quit playing on and on and on.”

“It’s Chris loves Jenny on a license plate / It’s daddy getting bad because you came home late / It’s one last kiss in the driveway / Hey radio DJ can you play that song / That she loves, so I can turn it up / And maybe turn her on / An American country love song.”

“So let’s raise a glass, cheerleaders and quarterbacks / Cowboys and country girls, all around this small town world / To the same old pick up lines, we’ve tried a million times / All the bad and good as it gets, to the ones that you ain’t met yet.”

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