Where We Started
Thomas Rhett
"Where We Started" is a duet that trades on the friction between two very different tones. Thomas Rhett brings his relaxed, slightly gravelly country tenor; Katy Perry brings a pop belt she deliberately reins in, singing softer and lower than her own catalog usually asks, which makes her sound unexpectedly intimate. The production is warm and mid-scale — acoustic guitar and brushed drums opening out into a full band on the choruses, strings kept subtle, no drop and no gimmick. The lyric is a long-marriage song about returning: the couple who have drifted through years and jobs and children and find their way back to the version of themselves that first fell in love, "where we started." Rhett has built a career on domestic contentment as subject matter, a rarity in a genre that prefers leaving over staying, and this is the title track of that thesis. Perry's presence functions as a bridge to a mainstream pop audience, but the arrangement never chases a crossover hit — it's content to be a slow one. Best heard at a wedding reception late in the evening, or in a kitchen with someone you've known long enough to have drifted from and returned to.
medium
2020s
warm, mid-scale
United States
country pop. country-pop duet. tender, warm. Gentle recollection of years spent drifting apart settles into a contented, unhurried return to origin. energy 4. medium. danceability 4. valence 8. vocals: relaxed tenor, restrained pop belt, warm, intimate. production: acoustic guitar, brushed drums, subtle strings, full-band chorus. texture: warm, mid-scale. acousticness 6. era: 2020s. United States. A wedding reception late in the evening, or a kitchen with someone you've drifted from and returned to.