I hate to say it, but I think my love for this album has waned over the years. Brad Paisley can still play like crazy and his lyrics are spot-on, clever, touching... but while the highlights are still quite good here, the lowlights don't seem to hold up as well.
As I'd written previously on my other blog, having seen Brad in concert was quite something... but it felt more like a pop music concert -- pre-rehearsed, filled with special effects and timed music videos on large screens, etc. -- than what I expected a country show to be.
Lyrically, songs like Ticks and Online are gold. They're funny, they flow well and tell great stories. These are songs that you can listen to a few times before you get all the little jokes tucked away in there. On top of that, however, are some good guitar licks and general production. Better Than This is another example of this that makes the latter half of the album for me.
My copy of the album has a few seemingly extra tracks at the end of it, some quasi-comedy outakes or something. I think the album would be a tiny bit better if it wrapped up after the first twelve songs; at 51 minutes it still makes for an average length album that people wouldn't complain about... but this is a pretty small complaint about the disc (and, again, this could be some sort of special edition or Canadian release of the disc, although I don't see anything on the disc that would indicate as much).
So, in short, the good songs are very good and certainly worth a listen; but I think the album does have a bit of filler that, after a few years, doesn't seem to hold up as well as it did initially.
| Recommended track(s): | Ticks; Online; I'm Still a Guy |
| Worth another listen? | Yes! |
| Overall rating: | Three Stars |
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