It’s fair to say there was a lot of cautious anticipation leading up to the release of Tim McGraw’s latest album ‘Sundown Heaven Town’ in the country music community, not least because he’d released two totally opposite singles in ‘Lookin’ For That Girl’ and ‘Meanwhile Back At Mama’s’. Too, with his signing to Big Machine a couple of years ago (let’s face it, the origin of bro-country) and a couple of the songs on his last album ‘Two Lanes of Freedom’ skewing that way (‘Truck Yeah’, anyone?), there was every possibility that ‘Sundown Heaven Town’ could be far more of a trend-chasing dud than a critical winner.
I think we all breathed a collective sigh of relief, therefore, when it transpired that nearly every offering on this 13-track (an astonishing 18-tracks on the deluxe!) collection was a solid effort. His latest single from the project, ‘Shotgun Rider’, is probably the clearest indication of the sonic and lyrical themes present throughout; that is to say, rooted in a country structure and songwriting style with polished rock instrumentation in a fairly full mix, illustrating classic love and heartbreak narratives with some poetic and romantic stylings. At its base, the majority of this album is classic McGraw, if somewhat updated for 2014 and to fit with the rock preferences of much of country radio. We hear a “big”, reverb-shrouded rock sound a la recent Brad Paisley on tracks like the ethereal ‘Last Turn Home’ and the stadium ballad-esque ‘Words Are Medicine’ (which gets a special mention for its far superior interpretation of the message Garth Brooks was probably going for with ‘People Loving People’).
Tim also leans towards the kind of slightly twangy alternative rock sound prevalent on the records of Luke Bryan and the airwaves of the country format with ‘Dust’ (which of course was written by Rhett Akins, Rodney Clawson and Ben Hayslip), and the unavoidably cheery ‘Keep On Truckin’’ (a Blair Daly, Warren Brothers and McGraw co-write). The latter, it should be noted, has all the ingredients for me to hate it, but guiltily enjoying it can’t really be prevented. Using the idea of continuing to drive with a smile on your face as a metaphor for keeping going with life and enjoying the good things despite the problems, there’s something incomprehensibly feel-good about this comparatively innocent country pop song.
But he hits a golden spot when he cuts the country and rock influences straight down the middle. ‘Shotgun Rider’, in addition to ‘City Lights’, ‘Sick of Me’ and ‘Overrated’, all incorporate an undeniably neotraditional approach to the actual writing of the melody and chord progressions, meanwhile placing more up-to-date rock instrumentation over the top in addition to the occasional pedal steel. It’s here where the album begins to shine the brightest and where Tim clearly feels most at home, merging the two at times clashing sides of his music into a solid, up-tempo, potential radio-single mould that serves him extremely well. He’s pleasing both camps, without seeming to sacrifice anything in the recording process. ‘Overrated’, it should also be noted, has an intriguing lyric that could be interpreted to be a commentary on the current state of country radio; on the surface, it holds a fairly unremarkable message of how love is all we need, and that everything else is overrated. If we pick out specific lines, however, phrases like “jacked up”, “rock we’re rolling on”, “chasing ghosts”, and “keeping up with the Jones” could make reference to the trends that involve jacked up trucks on top of a rock music base, while critics search for an artist who will emulate an older style, while everyone’s simply trying to keep up with each other, and continue to release something that’s hot. Of course, the link is tenuous at best and the layperson is not even going to consider such an underlying narrative, but it’s food for thought.
The sparser ballads are on this record are also extremely well-done. ‘Portland, Maine’, ‘Diamond Rings & Old Barstools’ (featuring Catherine Dunn) and the fabulous #1 single ‘Meanwhile Back At Mama’s’ are all emotive, perfectly-delivered album highlights that can be returned to again and again, each time finding something new. But as we reach the end of the standard edition, and two thirds through the deluxe, something curious occurs. It seems ‘Lookin’ For That Girl’ falling flat with listeners meant Tim and his label changed intended direction dramatically, because it’s so different to the other tracks that it feels oddly out of place. As a result, it comes across suspiciously like from track 12 onwards they have thrown some “balancers” on the record, turning the emotional heartbreak of ‘Still On The Line’ into some kind of sonic experimentation track. There’s R&B, EDM, rock and all kinds going on here, and it’s quite a bizarre turn of events. Next comes the first song on the deluxe edition, ‘Lincoln Continentals & Cadillacs’ (a duet with Kid Rock), which is summery, southern rock-lite nostalgic indulgence, then ‘I’m Feelin’ You’, a heavily disco-infused number featuring auto-tune and a lyric that is completely sex-crazy bro-country. ‘Black Jacket’ also dips into a kind of ambient EDM style over a song that was clearly once a standard country rock track, while ‘The View’ makes things even more confusing by taking strong Irish folk influences and working within a Mumford & Sons vein.
So, what is going on? The Deluxe version is a melting pot of a few established musical narratives being completely thrown out and a load of new ideas just smushed together. It seems very much like all the extra tracks they recorded when they were figuring out where to go sonically, and in a bid not to waste them just threw them all on a more expensive edition. It’s true, I really love ‘The View’ and think it’s a curious but well-suited direction for Tim to go in, but it’s quite out of place and something of an afterthought at track 17, particularly as it’s then followed chronologically by ‘Black Jacket’, which returns to some of the EDM used earlier. The placement of these tracks is quite artificial, and I almost would have suggested scrapping the deluxe and even taking ‘Lookin’ For That Girl’ off the standard. Make it an iTunes bonus track or something. This album overall is pretty good one, so it seems a shame to confuse its trajectory. I just suppose that’s the creative price you pay these days.
