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Sister Hazel’s “Release” isn’t their best record to date, but it’s still pretty good. I was a big fan of “Absolutely” and it might be my favorite Sister Hazel album yet. That said “Release” isn’t quite as good as that record. It comes close… this is true. But it’s not quite there. The interesting thing about this album is how different all of the songs are – maybe it’s because the core components of the songs weren’t written by everybody. All the members of the band came with songs to the table and they were taken and worked on by the band. That gave this album several different personalities. You can really tell this when listening to the record, but the similarities were there in most of the songs to make the album fairly cohesive. Still, you can tell that different people wrote all the songs on the album. Even though this Sister Hazel album has a plethora of different styles to it, it’s still what you would expect a Sister Hazel record would be at this point. It’s got a lot of heart and emotion. There are a couple of classics on this record that will turn into fan favorites. And basically we’re spoiled by more Sister Hazel music. “Release” isn’t a defining Sister Hazel record; it’s just another collection of songs that take a picture of where this band is at this stage in their career.