REVIEW BY CHUCK ARNOLD
COUNTRY
He may sell millions of albums, launch record-breaking tours, dabble in acting and have Faith Hill for a wife, but Tim McGraw wants you to know that he still puts his blue jeans on one leg at a time just like everybody else—even if he has a stylist pick them out for him. He works his cowboy-next-door charm well on this, his first album of new material since 2004's quadruple-platinum Live Like You Were Dying, which goes to show how he became a country superstar without being the best singer or the best songwriter (he only cowrote one tune here). First single "Last Dollar (Fly Away)," written by Big Kenny of Big & Rich fame, may be cheesy right down to its children's choir, but there are better showcases for McGraw here: The reflective "Nothin' to Die For" offers a different take on his smash "Live Like You Were Dying," while the tender "I Need You" is one of two chemistry-rich collaborations with Hill. Elsewhere, McGraw's cover of Eddie Rabbit's 1979 hit "Suspicions" is etched in the blue-eyed soul of Hall & Oates. Best, though, is "Whiskey and You," a classic country ballad about drinking away the pain.
DOWNLOAD THIS: "Whiskey and You"
