Rewind

The title Rewind suggests Rascal Flatts are ready to turn back the clock, perhaps to the start of their career or something even earlier, but the first song on this 2014 album drops an allusion to Instagram, so the trio is hardly unaware of the digital age. Throughout Rewind, Rascal Flatts reference other wonders of the modern age while also taking pains to position themselves as part of a lineage -- the title track casually mentions George Strait as a common thread between alienated lovers -- but there's never any indication that this Ohio band considers the past as more worthy than the present. This embrace of the now is one of the hallmarks of Rascal Flatts, a group that thoroughly inhabits the new suburban country, a country that resides not in the sticks but on the outskirts of a major urban center, the place where big box stores stretch as far as the eye can see. To that end, the trio brings in Howard Benson -- a producer better known for active rockers like 3 Doors Down, Saliva,