CD Reviews

Brad Paisley

5th Gear | Broken Bow

By WERNER TRIESCHMANN | June 27, 2007

3.5 Stars

Paisley’s winsome 5th Gear is about as light as Miranda Lambert’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is dark — in a good way. And both figure to be among the best albums Nashville produces this year. Paisley has the sharpest sense of humor in country music; his 2005 album, Time Well Wasted, included the drinking-song-to-end-all-drinking songs, “Alcohol,” and this one has “Ticks,” likely the sexiest song ever written about searching for blood-sucking bugs. What’s more, none of Paisley’s peers can match the exuberance he shows on “All I Wanted Was a Car,” a tune about the teenage gift that equals freedom, or even the unalloyed optimism on display in the soaring “It Did.” His bluegrass-flavored duet with Carrie Underwood, “Oh Love,” is a heartbreaker, and his guitar work throughout is top-notch. Maybe his skits with the Kung Pao Buckaroos are corny, but if you haven’t heard these jokes before, you’ll likely be sharing the one about Viagra with all your friends.

Related: Listen up, Doin’ it live, 2009: The top 10 in pop music, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Country Music, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 05/26 ] "A Natural Order," photographs by Lucas Foglia @ David Winton Bell Gallery

[ 05/26 ] George Orwell's 1984, adapted by Nick Lane @ Gamm Theatre

[ 05/26 ] "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" @ Rhode Island Convention Center

ARTICLES BY WERNER TRIESCHMANN

THE WHIGS: MISSION CONTROL | March 05, 2008
The Whigs began life as a guitar/bass/drums college band toiling away in Athens.

REBA MCENTIRE | February 12, 2008
Reba McEntire became famous in the 1980s, when country music consisted of ballads as big as the hair of the singers who sang them.

SIDESHOW AND TELL | January 28, 2008
She goes by the name Baby Dee, even though she was born in Cleveland in 1953.

LITTLE BIG TOWN | December 31, 2007
Although you may wish that the first single wasn’t about life on the road, even it is soaked in a sweetness that’s too rare these days.

KENNY CHESNEY | December 03, 2007
Chesney has built his sizeable country empire on selling Jimmy Buffett–like beach fantasies with guitar-fueled mid-tempo frat rock.