Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By NEEDTOBREATHE, Elektra Records 2020.
This album could be seen as a make-or-break album for American Alternative Rock outfit NEEDTOBREATHE because it’s the first to be recorded and released without co-founder Bo Rinehart.
The band formed in Seneca, South Carolina back in 2000 with a line-up that included brothers William Stanley ‘Bear’ Rinehart (lead vocals, guitar, piano) and Nathaniel Bryant ‘Bo’ Rinehart (lead guitar, mandolin, vocals), along with Seth Bolt (bass, vocals) and Joe Stillwell (drums).
Due to the Rinehart upbringing (their father was a Pastor who ran a church camp) the band were originally labelled as a Christian Rock group, and indeed the band name comes from a Socrates parable related to ‘seeking God’.
Out Of Body is their seventh studio album and it continues a tremendous run of success for the band that dates back to the release of their second album The Heat in 2006.
That album achieved substantial success in the mainstream charts and notched up a series of award nominations including for Contemporary/Rock song Of The Year and Contemporary Album of The Year.
They followed that success by winning a top award in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2018.
This is the sort of run that bands can only ever dream of, but to actually pull it off places the band in very classy company.
Bo Rinehart was an influential member of this close-knit band of brothers and others, so when the band entered the studios to make Out Of Body many were asking whether the loss of such an important member would be the breaking point.
Would they even survive?
Bear Rinehart commented: “We went in to make a record without Bo for the very first time and honestly we didn’t know how that would go. The reason that we’re still here is that it went great.”
They needn’t have worried because Out Of Body is right up there with their ARIA #2 album Hard Love (2016) and I fully expect that it will emulate the chart success of that album.
Their stadium filling anthems are sure to fill the auditoriums of the world once the pandemic is over.
