Bonfire

<b>The band deliver sweet, soaring country songs fuelled by love and connection on their sixth album.</b> The Shires set the scene early on <i>Bonfire</i>. Its opening track places them, fittingly, next to a crackling bonfire, as they deliver a romantic love song about wanting to sing with someone you also want to hold close. Love, connection and togetherness fuel this album, as on the clapping <b>“Getaway Car”</b> or the sing-along-inviting <b>“Magnetised”</b>, about the feeling of being irresistibly drawn to someone. But the UK’s biggest country outfit can dial it down, too. <b>“house of cards”</b>, for example, is a delicate ballad about a fragile relationship, while <b>“Slow Dance”</b> tenderly portrays falling for a friend (“I don’t know if it’s just in my head/It doesn’t feel like we’re just friends”). Then there’s the intimate <b>“Sing You Back”</b>, a desperate wish that music could bring someone back after a loss: “I keep dreaming that tonight I’ll find the perfect melody/To sing you back to me.” Four years separates this album from the duo’s fifth studio album, 2022’s <i>10 Year Plan</i>, during which time The Shires’ Crissie Rhodes became a mother. It’s an experience that perhaps inspired <b>“Blink”</b>, a sweet song about wanting to capture someone, exactly as they are, as time hurries on. “I’m not even gonna blink/Take my eyes off you/Not even for a second,” sings the duo. “Time goes faster than you think.”