Songs About Me
Those who live by the lyrics die by the lyrics too. Consider Adkins, who's as good a lyric seller as any singer in Nashville. The trenchant title song of this album, by Shaye Smith and Ed Hill, is in fact a kind of apologia for country songs "about scars and cars and broken hearts," just the kind of stuff Adkins thrives on. On his sixth studio effort, which opened at No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart, he's just as winning on the ruefully romantic "I Learned How to Love from You" and the clever "Find Me a Preacher." However, Adkins's attention to the variety of his lyrics also means he's stuck with such tunes as "Arlington," on which the apparent ghost of a war casualty buried at Arlington National Cemetery breaks into song about the experience. And "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," about a passing beauty with a provocative walk, comes across as "Mairzy Doats" meets "Baby Got Back." The album's overall goal maybe to enhance Adkins's reputation as a storyteller, but he needs to be a little more careful about picking which stories to tell.
DOWNLOAD THIS: "Songs About Me"
