Blake Shelton

Blake Shelton’s current hit takes a welcome break from the watery nineties rock of “Over” and “God Gave Me You,” instead going for a light R&B groove with a synthesized hand clap. (It’s anybody’s guess when we’ll see the return of the fiddler and steel guitarist who have been seemingly M.I.A. since circa 2009) To the single’s credit, this particular sonic backdrop affords some much-needed breathing room for Shelton’s vocals, the quality of which has generally remained consistent even when the song quality hasn’t.

This one’s a dead ringer for one of those nineties lukewarm rock ballads. You know the kind.

A faceless band with a generic frontman singing a plaintive love song that relies on pounding guitars for its intensity. It’s their one hit that gets played everywhere, but nobody buys the album because it’s just going to pop up on some late-night hits collection anyway.