Luke Combs' 'The Way I Am' Album Review: All 22 Tracks Ranked

Fans have already gotten a strong sample of what Luke Combs has to offer on The Way I Am, out Friday (March 20). The country superstar has released eight of the 22 tracks, with “Days Like These” and “Sleepless in a Hotel Room” taking up space simultaneously in the top 10 of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (the accomplishment made Combs the first artist to achieve the feat since Morgan Wallen in 2023). Additionally, “Sleepless in a Hotel Room” and “Be By You” are lodged at No. 3 and No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. After releasing what could very loosely be considered concept albums with 2022’s Growin’ Up, 2023’s Getting’ Old and 2024’s Fathers & Sons, Combs has returned to a collection that showcases all sides of his personality, including as a vulnerable husband (“The Way I Am”) and loving father (“The Me Part of You”), but also sees him taking on different personas that couldn’t be further from his true self, such as an inmate who is serving a life sentence (“15 Minutes”). As such, the album gives fans a broader range than some of his past albums, but feels occasionally generic if it weren’t for his powerful, instantly recognizable growl that simply levels up every song he touches. Ultimately, there is something here for every fan and a song to fit almost every mood. Combs, who produced the album with longtime collaborators Jonathan Singleton and Chip Matthews, also indulges in some cowboy imagery (“I Ain’t No Cowboy”), but saves plenty of slots to to kick out the jams and get the party started on such rowdy numbers as “My Kinda Saturday Night” and “Back in the Saddle.” As usual, he co-wrote almost all the songs on the album, only covering three songs penned by other writers. Combs will support the album with a global stadium tour that starts Saturday at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium and includes stops in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and Scotland before ending with three nights at London’s Wembley Stadium in early August. Below is a ranking of the 22 songs on the long-awaited set.  “Miss You Here” You can’t outrun a memory no matter hard you try. Combs gets a new car, tries a geographic move and even finds a new dive bar and a girlfriend (poor thing), but his ex’s ghost still haunts him in this mid-tempo, chugging track that plays on a familiar, time-worn theme. “Be By You” One of a number of songs Combs has already released from the album, “Be By You” has a summery romantic vibe. Pedal steel and shimmering guitar give this song a tender and intimately flirty feel, as Combs sings of simply wanting to be close to the one he loves. Clean, crisp production keeps his conversational vocal front and center. One of the few songs on the album that’s an outside cut, “Be By You” was written by Dan Alley, Sam Banks and Nick Walsh.  “Days Like These” Combs is known for his hard-hitting up-tempo songs, but many of his most impactful songs have been love-brimmed ballads. Here, over scaled-back guitar, he revisits the concept of pondering what true wealth is–namely soaking in an enduring love and simple joys. “Even if it grew on trees/Money can’t buy days like these,” he sings. Combs wrote “Days Like These” with Brent Cobb and Aaron Raitiere. “15 Minutes” They say write what you know, but Combs proves that isn’t always true on this wistful, stirring ballad about an inmate serving a life sentence for an unnamed crime, whose only connection to his previous life are the 15-minute phone calls he can make to his mom. He asks her the mundane (what she’s reading) and the profound (will Jesus forgive him for his sins and will his father ever talk to him again?) as the warden taps his watch, indicating it’s time to hang up and return to the monotonous reality of his days behind bars. “The Way I Am” Even though Combs didn’t have a hand in writing this languid ballad, his impassioned delivery sells every word as his own. He laments his inability to change his behavior but takes comfort that his partner still loves him just as he is. “You know that you are the damnedest most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen” may not roll off the tongue, but the sentiment resonates with anyone who has ever felt fully loved, flaws and all. “Can’t Tell Me I’m Wrong” The album’s run of up-tempo tracks continues with this groovy guitar-driven track that has Combs singing a tale of trying to transform a brief romantic fling into a long-term love. “If you’re thinkin’ you’re too good for me, then you’d be right,” he sings, wrapping humility with a wink of self-depreciating charm in hopes of winning over a love interest. Combs wrote the song with Ray Fulcher, Pete Good and Lydia Vaughan. “Sleepless In A Hotel Room”   Already a hit on Billboard’s Country Airplay and Country Songs chart, Combs sings about a feeling that anyone who travels a lot and must leave a spouse behind can relate to. Though the road life can seem glamorous, he’s not able to sleep away from his partner and wonders if she’s going through the same misery being apart. The only thing that brings relief from hours of staring at the ceiling is the arrival of the next morning and being one step closer to going home on this moving ballad. “Soon As I Get Home” This jaunty track feels like a counterpart of sorts to “Sleepless in a Hotel Room,” as both center on feeling too far from home. On “Soon As I Get Home,” long days on the road have him pining to return to his lover at home. “C’mon county line, tell me I’m gettin’ close,” he sings with a full-throttle urgency, while this polished track’s rollicking rhythm feels radio-worthy. “Daytona 499” As the song’s title suggests, Combs employs a racing theme to compare a passionate but ill-fated romantic relationship that didn’t last to a NASCAR driver whose dreams of a Daytona 500 championship fade as they narrowly miss reaching the checkered flag first. “We could’ve been Earnhardt in that 3 car/ Just like ’98,” he sings wistfully of the wilted love, referencing the year NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. earned his sole Daytona 500 win. “A Man Was Born” The last song on an album often serves as some kind of grand statement and Combs does that with “A Man Was Born,” as the tune looks back at all the moments in his life when he thought he was becoming a man—whether it’s sipping his first drink or driving his own car or his first fist fight—only to realize that “I found out fast life will put you back in your place,” and that there’s never one particular moment, but a series of moments, that lead to it. The song ends on a nice twist to put a swell cap on the album. “My Kinda Saturday Night” A swampy, surf guitar opens “My Kinda Saturday Night” before the song explodes into a rollicking invitation to kick it wide open. Musically, the tune sounds straight out of the ‘90s, and name drops such hits from that era as  “Pickup Man” and “Bubba Shot the Jukebox” (as well as ‘80s classic “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight.”  It would be a wild tour opener, but Combs would spend the rest of the show catching his breath given the rapid-fire pace. “Seeing Someone” In this post-breakup gentle ballad, friends encourage him to move on, but he’s still caught up in the throes of memories of his ex, quietly reliving time spent with her everywhere he goes. Combs’ sturdy, commanding voice captures the song’s angst between the realization that it’s time to move past heartache, and the insistent tug to hang on to a former flame. “Rethink Some Things” Combs lays his warm vocal over a slinky, rock-infused groove on “Rethink Some Things,” which centers on a red-hot romance that sparks some reconsiderations. “I know before I said no more/ But no more’s not enough,” he sings over smoky bass lines and sensual guitar riffs, making this song sultry, but still blazing. “I Ain’t No Cowboy” Co-written with Cody Johnson when they were on the road, this broken-hearted ballad’s horse and cowboy imagery sets the scene for a doomed romance that just may have succeeded if Combs “could’ve been more like John Wayne” and “roped her heart back in.”  Instead, he’s watching as “she saddled up and she kicked up a cloud of dust,” leaving him with nothing but regrets as she rides back out of his life. “Giving Her Away” One of the album’s most sentimental songs, the piano-laced “Giving Her Away” looks at the connection between a groom and the bride’s father. As they stand next to each other and both watch the bride walk down the aisle, they share a life-altering moment, as one is letting go while the other prepares to start a new life chapter with the one he loves. The song finds light-hearted connection on lines such as “Only she could’ve got us both in suits/ Only she could’ve got us outta our boots,” but at its core, the song is a heartfelt reflection on love and life changes. “Alcohol of Fame” Not to be confused with Riley Green’s “Alcohall of Fame,” this fun romp leads where millions of country songs before it have: straight to the bar to drink away a broken heart. “When they turn them go-home lights on I swear they’re going to know my name/I’m about to drink myself into the Alcohol of Fame,” Combs sings surrounded by screaming guitars and thumping drums. Heartache has never sounded so appealing. “Rich Man” This track, awash with pedal steel and understated guitar, weighs monetary riches versus family life, threading a storyline that questions what true wealth looks like. Two men—one in a suit, the other in faded overalls—are both saddled up to a bar, when the man in the overalls gives a crisp reminder that chasing money doesn’t always equal living a quality life. “Makin’ a livin’ ain’t what makes a life,” Combs sings, underscoring the idea that no amount of financial gains can buy more time or replace moments like holding the hand of a loved one. “Wish Upon A Whiskey” Combs has one of the most vulnerable, expressive voices in country and he uses it to great effect on “Wish Upon A Whiskey,” about a man who tries to turn to prayer and other solutions for what ails him, but everything fails and so he repeatedly turns back to the bottle. “I do the only thing that don’t make me feel empty/Pull that bottle out and wish upon the whiskey,” Combs sings in the piano ballad. “Here comes the burn I love to hate/It’s all I’ve got,” Combs sings as the protagonist tries to quell the self-loathing one more time. “Tell ‘Em About Tonight” Combs takes a thoughtful, even-keeled look at the fleeting nature of success on this track. He imagines a future where he’s looking back on the stadium-filling success he’s currently enjoying and considering what he’ll tell people he’s most proud of, including his wife, family, and the years of massive headlining shows he’s playing now, sharing his music with tens of thousands of fans each night. With the hook, “I’ll tell ‘em about tonight,” the song feels tailor-made for the stage and is sure to be a fan favorite in concert. “Ever Mine” (feat. Allison Kraus) Fans of Combs’ will know this song from an unreleased version he posted on YouTube more than five years ago, which features him accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar. The beautiful stripped-down song, co-written with fellow artists Charlie Worsham and Hailey Whitters, takes the form of a letter he’s writing to his love and, while not specified, sounds like it’s from an earlier time, whether it be the Civil War or some other reason they are separated and his concern is they may not be reunited. Add in Krauss’ angelic, otherworldly tones (slight complaint that she’s not higher up in the mix or has a solo) and the acoustic instrumentation, the song is a gorgeous standout that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Ken Burns documentary. “The Me Part of You” A tender song dedicated to his sons, Combs sings knowingly of the mischievous, adventurous habits that he’s surely passing down to the next generation. Filled with fatherly advice on how to weather heartbreak, as well as “all the trouble you’ll chase/ All the hell you’ll raise,” this is Combs connecting fatherly anxieties to the teachings of hard-fought wisdom. “Back in the Saddle” Fans’ first introduction to the new album, Combs released this down-and-dirty track last summer.  It remains one of the album’s best and as the opening track, it sets the tone for the wild ride to come with showy, blazing electric guitars. Using cowboy metaphors: “Pulled up his boots/put his pistol on his hips”—Combs also used it to signify his brief hiatus was over and he was back at it. It’s one of the most rock-inflected songs Combs has recorded and it’s fun to think how great a mash-up of this song with Aerosmith’s same-title song “Back in the Saddle” (with Steven Tyler joining in) would be.   Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox Sign Up Leave a Comment Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Name * Email * Website Post Comment Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about? Get in the know on Visit Billboard Pro for music business news