Sometimes to write a review, one must stop listening to the album to do so. Since the album’s May 29th release, I’ve been listening to Kip Moore’s seventh studio album, Reason to Believe on repeat. Thanks in part to my neurodivergent brain and because the album is that damn good.
While I want to say it arrives hot on the heels of February 2025’s Solitary Tracks, more than a year separates the two releases. Even so, there’s a sense of continuation between them. I felt something similar between Wild World and its successor Damn Love. It was as though the latter closed a chapter opened by the former. Reason to Believe carries that same feeling, functioning almost as a companion piece and a conclusion at once.
“Heartbreaker” feels like a distant cousin to “American Heartbreak”, which may be no coincidence given the songwriting connection between Kip Moore and Jaren Johnston. Giving credit where credit is due, Casey Beathard is also credited on “Heartbreaker”. While “Lonely Tonight” carries the same tinny, ’70s-era The Who energy that made “Love & War” from Solitary Tracks such a standout.
The gritty, raucous “viva la revolución” anthem “Levee” opens the album before leading one through stories of love, grief, regret, and the inevitable passage of time. On tracks such as “Get What Ya Give”, “Heartbreaker”, “Headlights”, and “Josephine”, Kip reflects on love and the loss of it, often acknowledging that the blame doesn’t always sit equally on both sides.
There are also undeniable bangers, including the aforementioned “Heartbreaker”, “You & Me” and “Sober”, alongside gut-punch moments like “The Darkness”, “Faith in the Wind”, “Long Time Coming”, and the title track “Reason to Believe”, songs that hit the heart as hard as they challenge the mind.
A recent social media post described the album as Bruce Springsteen with a twist, and my immediate reaction was, people are only noticing that now? I’ve spent years arguing that Kip is more rock than country and Reason to Believe has plenty of evidence to prove my point. From day one, Kip’s songwriting has shared more DNA with Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty than with the latest flash-in-the-pan hitmakers. At the same time, I’ve often compared him to Nickelback. Much like the famously loved-and-hated Canadians, Kip has an undeniable gift for writing songs that stick by combining substance with hooks that refuse to let go.
If anyone still thinks Kip Moore is only a country artist, they probably haven’t been paying attention because Reason to Believe isn’t trying to remind people that blue-collar rock still matters. It simply proves it does.
