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Leesburg, Georgia based Phillip Phillips is ready with his sophomore studio set titled Behind The Light. The follow up to his successful 2012 debut The World From The Side of The Moon, Phillip continues to build upon the buzz and aura surrounding his debut and captures his audience's attention with his powerful and emotional voice resonating strongly throughout the folk based tunes that are omnipresent through this terrific effort.
We start things out with "Searchlight", a simple and beautiful arrangement with Phillip's southern charm working its way through immediately upon impact and builds upon the intro with a harmonic mixture of acoustic guitar rhythms and layered upon with dense instrumentation that sounds terrific when it's all combined together. "Raging Fire" is the album's first single and is a harmonic slice of musical bliss with a steady pace that allows the prospective listener to take notice of all the terrific musical notes abound at every turn and Phillip's vocal work making the experience that much more enjoyable. "Lead On" is my favorite track off the album that is the purest example of Phillip's musical craft hard at work here with refreshing folk infused rhythms and Phillip's voice telling the story and expressing his Georgia upbringing that is hard working and indicative of the environment he grew up in as well. "Alive Again" does a neat job of having Phillip's guitar tell the story with a harmonic and building percussion element setting its way in nicely for the second half of the effort to follow.
The second half begins with "Fool For You", a complete studio effort with everything that you could possibly imagine from Phillip: deep and passionate vocals, excellent instrumentation, and his dynamic vision coming to fruition on this one. "Fly" is a simply constructed musical element with soft, whispering guitars and Phillip's strong musical presence elevating the song into a full featured track towards the end that towers over the others in terms of its appearance and features in its musical arsenal. "Unpack Your Heart" is a beautiful, heartfelt number that does a great job of tugging at those old heartstrings with emotion drenched guitars being the trigger that sets the whole song apart from all the others on the disc. "Midnight Sun" ends it all here with an encapsulated number that brings in elements we've heard earlier on the album, and gives us a recap of what we heard previously and how we got to this point musically as well. I've always been a deep admirer of Phillip ever since I saw him on American Idol, and I know he had that instant charisma and Georgia bred charm that could win over the hearts of anyone in his presence, and the fact that he has that raw and weathered voice makes his music all the more authentic and puts it on a higher pedestal than other similar artists out there today.
Overall, a terrific effort heard here from Phillip Phillips. While not as good as his first effort, he does a great job of continuing to adhere to everything that he knows musically, and inspire countless others in his wake including myself.
Score:3.5/5
Track Listing:
Searchlight
Raging Fire
Trigger
Lead On
Alive Again
Open Your Eyes
Fool For You
Thicket
Fly
Unpack Your Heart
Face
Midnight Sun