Rascal Flatts Release Long-Awaited Feels Like Today

 

By Mary Morningstar
(Music)
It took Country vocal¹ group Rascal² Flatts two years to release its third and latest album Feels Like Today.  Some changes in their personal lives and an exhausting tour schedule made it the most difficult album they've made. But, they say it was worth the wait to give their fans a collection that they feel is musically and lyrically the best of their career.
The lyrics³ in "Then I Did" perfectly⁴ describe Rascal Flatts' rise to fame in Country music. But, Rascal Flatts members Jay DeMarcus, Joe Don Rooney and Gary LeVox worked very hard during the past few years to prove their talent.
Early in their career, Country traditionalists criticized the trio for its young, pop-influenced sound. Jay DeMarcus says, "They said we were trying to be Country's answer to The Backstreet Boys or 'N Sync." Fans and Country radio showed their support, however, and Rascal Flatts' 1999 debut⁵ album went on to sell a million copies. Sales of the trio's second release, Melt, doubled that number and earned the band the Country Music Association's 2002 Horizon Award. Last year, Rascal Flatts won the CMA's Vocal Group of the Year honor, a category they appear in again this year.
(Music)
Rascal Flatts gives thanks to their fans in "Here's To You," a track on the new album that was co-written by the group's Jay DeMarcus. Their current tour, which is named after the song, will take the trio to 28 U.S. cities through the end of the year.
Feels Like Today entered Billboard's Country Albums and Top 200 charts at Number One. Rascal Flatts is only the second Country group to achieve that feat⁶. The first was another trio, The Dixie Chicks, who debuted⁷ in the top spot of both charts in 1999 with Fly and again in 2002 with their latest album, Home. And Rascal Flatts has the fifth highest Country sales debut of 2004 by selling nearly 201,000 copies of Feels Like Today.
Rascal Flatts recently earned its eighth Country Top 10 hit with the album's title track. Only two of the trio's singles have made it all the way to Number One on the Country chart.
Here's Rascal Flatts with “Feels Like Today”.
I am Mary Morningstar.
(Music)
注释：
trio 三人组，三重唱
debut 首发，初次（登场）
Billboard 美国公告牌排行榜

1 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

2 rascal   

n.流氓；不诚实的人

参考例句：

• If he had done otherwise,I should have thought him a rascal.如果他不这样做，我就认为他是个恶棍。
• The rascal was frightened into holding his tongue.这坏蛋吓得不敢往下说了。

3 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

4 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

5 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

6 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

7 debuted   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末，全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队，推出。
• The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名，很快就取得了白金销量。