As a native urban dweller, I totally get how the country life can get overlooked.  Sure, the country folk can be just as oblivious to our ways of life, but it’s not a fair equivalence.   We can overlook them without even knowing we’re doing it, but the fly over states have no way to hide from us.

In the American media, big city life is pretty much all that’s depicted. There aren’t news networks and situation comedies and international magazines being beamed in from those fly over states.   Everybody in America knows what New York City looks like, but there are small towns across the country that will always remain nameless and faceless to all but the few who live there or pass through them.

So Aldean’s passionate description of Oklahoma, the Badlands, and other places of beauty comes off more as a “we’re special, too”  than a “we’re better than you.”   Maybe it will motivate some east or west coast folks to take the scenic route instead of a direct flight next time.

Written by Wendell Mobley and Neil Thrasher

Grade: B+

Listen: Fly Over States

If you had a friend who was a tightrope walker, and you were walking down a sidewalk, and he fell, that would be completely unacceptable. – Mitch Hedberg

~~~

Emotional Traffic is a collection of poor choices.

First and foremost, the material is shockingly weak.  Yes, McGraw has been slowly slipping over the last couple of albums, but the bottom has completely fallen out here.

Take a song like “Right Back Atcha Babe”, for example.  It’s a hodgepodge of little details in the same vein as “Something Like That,” but none of them are believable.  And why are they having the conversation anyway? It’s not like they’ve suddenly run into each other after a really long time.  Why is he recapping the events like he’s got to get her caught up before this week’s episode?

“One Part, Two Part” and “I Will Not Fall Down” are Nashville songwriting at its laziest.   They’re not even songs so much as they’re song titles.   It’s all packaging and no product.

The album is polluted with that bizarre inversion of modern country music:  The less a song has to say, the longer it takes to say it.   Songs go on forever on this album.  The bloated opener, “Halo”, doesn’t contain a single intelligible moment, despite five minutes of trying.   “Touchdown Jesus” is a ridiculous concept to begin with, and could’ve made its point in two minutes instead of four, had McGraw had the good taste to cover Bobby Bare’s “Dropkick Me, Jesus” instead.

Look, you know you’re in trouble when nine tracks in, it’s a relief to hear “Felt Good On My Lips.”  Sure, the melody’s so blatantly derivative of “Video Killed the Radio Star”  that it makes Lady Gaga sound fresh and original.   But at least it has a pulse, even if I’m still bewildered by the Incredible Machinery of it all.

And to be fair, there are some decent moments scattered throughout, like “Better Than I Used to Be” and “Die By My Own Hand”, but it’s all ground that McGraw’s covered before, and better, too.   They’re just not worth sitting through Emotional Traffic for.

Had I not committed to writing this review, I don’t know that I would’ve listened to this album at all, certainly not for a second and third time.  This level of work from this level of talent is nothing short of completely unacceptable.

Kenny Chesney leads with nine nominations.   Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, and Brad Paisley follow.

Check out the entire list of nominees here.

A deeply moving spin on the same concept that anchors “Blame it On Me”,  “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore” is the story of a man who loves the woman leaving him so much, he’s even willing to say she left him so she can save face.

As with many great country songs, the devil is in the details.  All of the direct consequences of a relationship’s end are explored, and as they get more mundane, the song becomes more powerful.   In great country music, reality always trumps fantasy.

I fear that Jackson’s remarkable run at radio may have already drawn to a close, but if there’s any justice, this will reignite his presence on the radio dial.  His new release ranks among his best work, and given that he’s one of the genre’s all time greats, that’s heady company for it to be in.

Written by Jay Knowles and Adam Wright

Grade: A

Listen: So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore

This is just plum terrible.

Loretta Lynn might’ve been able to make something useful out of it, a dime store take-off of “One’s On the Way” or something.

But there’s nothing domesticated about Dolly Parton.  Amazing how she’s much more believable as a lady of ill repute or a runaway teen than she is as a housewife.

It just doesn’t fit.

Written by Porter Wagoner

Grade: D

Next: Together Always (with Porter Wagoner)

Previous: Lost Forever in Your Kiss (with Porter Wagoner)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaY5uFyTyxA

First, he really is about as country as Bruce Springsteen. That’s a compliment.  Springsteen’s working class ethos has more in common with country music greats of days gone by than anybody on the country radio dial today.

Second, Moore sings with equal parts of authority, sincerity, and conviction.   That’s what made “Mary Was the Marrying Kind” heartbreaking, and what makes “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck” invigorating.

Sure, it’s a laundry list of the small town lifestyle, and we’ve had more than enough of those lately.  But Moore doesn’t sound like he’s pandering.

No, if anything, he sounds like he’s reveling in the pleasures that await him at the end of the week after forty hours at the factory.   That’s a welcome change from those who sound like high schoolers who hit up that back country road on their way home from the mall.

Kip Moore is good.

Grade:  B+

Listen:  Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck

Boring singers, boring songwriters, and boring musicians.  How can the resulting record not be boring?

It isn’t bad enough to be offensive.  It doesn’t exist enough to be bad.

I’m not sure it even exists.

Written by Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott

Grade: D

Listen: Dancin’ Away With My Heart

It’s a strong concept.  But the fairly flat delivery and a production that never takes off keeps things a little too grounded in reality for it to actually sound like the escapism it celebrates.

Written by Kenny Chesney and Brett James

Grade: B

Listen:  Reality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7xS54IGEGI

Drink on that, Blake.

Written by Jessi Alexander, Rodney Clawson, and Jon Randall

Grade: D

Listen: Drink On It

Deceptively simple.

“You’re Something Special to Me” is so laid back that it’s easy to miss the craftsmanship.  As Strait channels a young Merle Haggard, a slow western swing arrangement surrounds him with warmth.

When people say he’s country music’s Sinatra, this is what they’re talking about.

Written by David Anthony

Grade: A

Next: Nobody in His Right Mind Would’ve Left Her

Previous: The Chair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOUvHTnk3yQ