Album Reviews

Luke Bryan, ‘Crash My Party’ – Album Review
Luke Bryan, ‘Crash My Party’ – Album Review
Luke Bryan, ‘Crash My Party’ – Album Review
Luke Bryan plays it safe on 'Crash My Party,' his new album and the follow-up to the tremendously successful 'Tailgates and Tanlines.' With the exception of the infusion of hip-hop on two songs, there is little to differentiate the two projects.
Darius Rucker, ‘True Believers’ – Album Review
Darius Rucker, ‘True Believers’ – Album Review
Darius Rucker, ‘True Believers’ – Album Review
Darius Rucker sings with more energy than a nuclear power plant, but his new album 'True Believers' is safer than solar power. He captures the spirit of his live show -- one of the best in the business -- on each of the 12 tracks, but one yearns for for something unique and unexpected.
Granger Smith, ‘Dirt Road Driveway’ – Album Review
Granger Smith, ‘Dirt Road Driveway’ – Album Review
Granger Smith, ‘Dirt Road Driveway’ – Album Review
If you look back over Granger Smith's early album covers, you'll find that he presented himself as a hat act. Sonically he's come a long way since those efforts, with his latest album 'Dirt Road Driveway' falling squarely in the singer-songwriter sub-genre of country music. It's an album that would sound best at a coffee house, not a honky tonk.
Randy Houser, ‘How Country Feels’ – Album Review
Randy Houser, ‘How Country Feels’ – Album Review
Randy Houser, ‘How Country Feels’ – Album Review
Randy Houser comes in from the edges of country music with his third album 'How Country Feels' -- his first on new label Stoney Creek Records. The singer wrote just seven of the project's 15 cuts, but employed many of Nashville's top songwriters to help with the others.
Taylor Swift, ‘Red’ – Album Review
Taylor Swift, ‘Red’ – Album Review
Taylor Swift, ‘Red’ – Album Review
Taylor Swift's new album, 'Red,' doesn't provide much to quiet the haters who will forever accuse her of being "too pop." It's inaccurate to say she leans that way on most of the 16 new songs. That tower in Pisa leans. Swift is in a pike position diving toward sugary waters.
Zac Brown Band, ‘Uncaged’ – Album Review
Zac Brown Band, ‘Uncaged’ – Album Review
Zac Brown Band, ‘Uncaged’ – Album Review
On paper, ‘Uncaged’ should not work as an album, let alone a country music album. The new release from Zac Brown Band redefines “something for everybody.” Country, reggae, bedroom R&B… Brown and his ever-growing motley crew stretch the Nashville sound further than any other artist. If they weren’t so talented, this project would fall apart long before the title-track.