Friday, May 24, 2013

Album Review: George Strait- Love Is Everything

If I add up incidental listening at bars, the homes of family and friends, retail outlets and radio play in addition to the spins I've given my own formidable collection of albums and CDs, I reckon I've spent as much time listening to George Strait as any single musician.  I'm fine with that.

And I'm hardly alone.  Billboard magazine just reported that the new release Love Is Everything is "Strait's 18th top 10 album on the Billboard 200" and is his 25th album to top the country chart. 

Strait is nothing if not consistent.  Love Is Everything may lack a stone-cold classic like "Chill of an Early Fall", but new tracks including "I Just Can't Go On Dying Like This" and "Sittin' On the Fence" are as good as mainstream country gets in 2013.  Even the most cliché-ridden songs contain pleasing subtleties.  "I Believe", a paean to faith, isn't about Jesus as much as it is a candid acknowledgment of crippling pain. 

It's high time for me to quit taking King George for granted.


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I reviewed Soundgarden's sodden appearance at the Midland.

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Tim Finn's 10 of the Year's Best Local Music Releases (so far) alerted me to a couple projects that weren't on my radar.  My similar entry is here.

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I'm entranced by Fabrice Sotton's absurdly obscure new Le pas du guépard.  RIYL: Erik Satie, Ibdullah Ibrahim, Mark Isham. 

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Free Melvins if you should choose to live that lifestyle: here.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

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