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Trace Adkins - X
| Billboard |
| There's a reason Trace Adkins is still alive and well on his 10th album: he is the sincere, God-fearing, pickup truck-driving, sometime-screwup everyman that his songs appeal to. Not known as a songwriter, Adkins has an innate ability to make a song his own, as is the case with the seemingly autobiographical "Happy to Be Here" and the family-first "All I Ask for Anymore." Adkins' sense of humor is on display on "Marry for Money," a hilarious take on a male gold digger, and on the self-deprecating "Hillbilly Rich." While the baritone channels his inner Barry White on "Let's Do That Again," he shows his vulnerable side on "I Can't Outrun You." "Til the Last Shot's Fired," with its poignant prologue, and bluesy single "Muddy Water," which speaks of spiritual rebirth, are the album's two best cuts. —Ken Tucker...full text |
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| Popmatters |
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Country music often thrives off despair. One of this year’s best albums, Jamey Johnson’s That Lonesome Song, dives deep in the depths of it. Other best-selling 2008 country albums, like Alan Jackson’s Good Time, for example, are more carefree on the surface, but less certain if you listen closer. I won’t say that Trace Adkins’ X, his tenth album, has no worry or loneliness in it, sure it does. But Adkins’ persona here is confident and even optimistic. Confidence has always been a big part of his personality as a star, for sure. There’s a blog devoted to pictures of him shirtless, after all, and he wrote a book titled A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck. But here he’s seldom in-your-face about anything. His tough-guy persona has some thoughtfulness to it, and smoothness. And he matches his own confident singing with music that’s at least as confident. X is a headstrong album and enjoyable for it. It’s marked by consistency in songwriting and performing. It’s a comfortable album that never slips away, that breezes by while standing tall. X opens with a swagger on “Sweet”, as he takes his mother’s wish for him to settle down with a sweet girl and responds with his own modern definition of “sweet”. With a growl in his voice, singing with a wicked grin on his face, he paints a picture of a naughtier girl than his mom no doubt was referring to and then finishes off the song cleverly by quoting Def Leppard—“pour some sugar on me”. The second song, “Happy to Be Here”, takes that swagger and turns it upwards, into a power-anthem, a sure-fire radio hit. At the same time, the song has a humble optimism which fits its big, crashing hook well. It’s a song of devotion and thanks, to a lover and to God, but more importantly its sincerity doesn’t hold back the song’s upward push or the punch packed by the chorus. Those two songs set the tone for the album, which balances Adkins’ sense of humor with a more serious side, while exuding contentment all the while....full text |
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| Rollingstone |
| race Adkins has built a built a rep praising booty (see 2005's "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk"), and his latest opens with "Sweet," which compares a hot gal to "diamond bling." (What, no Lil Wayne remix?) But he's still a country traditionalist, and his 10th set also finds him praising baptism ("Muddy Water") and his family ("All I Ask for Anymore"). His serious side is more compelling: Check his resonant baritone on the soldier's lament "Till the Last Shot's Fired." It's a peace prayer that knows peace is miles away....full text |
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