Jason Aldean Albums (3)
What The Critics Say
Jason Aldean quietly turned into a genuine country star in the back half of the 2000s -- not the kind who has pop hits, but the kind who steadily reaches the country Top Ten, primed for a crossover hit. Wide Open, his third album, might take him there, since he manages to hit every contemporary cliché in the book without seeming too systematic about it. That light touch takes Aldean a long way, as it never appears that he's pandering even though he kind of is, making sure that he has songs about small-town girls with big-city dreams, paeans to Nashville, mournful laments about his rowdy ways, a tune about his big green tractor, and love songs to the country and girls from the country. Aldean puts a lot of rock in his country, particularly on the stuttering AC/DC riff that powers "She's Country," which is a bit of compensation for the plainness of his voice, but his simple, affectless singing does disguise just how shopworn his songs are. He doesn't necessarily turn the familiar into something fresh, but his keen, plainspoken voice does ground Wide Open, making ballads feel intimate and party anthems not too rowdy. It's nothing too risky, nothing too soft, just a straight shot down the middle of the road -- a road that runs through a subdivision that only becomes memorable through repetition. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Hailing from Macon, GA, country-rocker Jason Aldean absorbed a variety of musical influences in his youth and he happily incorporates them into his unusually personal style -- one that eschews Hat Brigade purity in favor of a greasy, gritty sound that draws on influences from all around the South and maybe a few points north as well. Following on the heels of both his surprise win as the Academy of Country Music's Top Male Vocalist and gold sales of his debut album, Relentless finds Aldean messing around with his sound a bit: the guitars are heavy and aggressive, and where others might incorporate lonely pedal steel he has a tendency to bring in a raunchy electric bottleneck guitar; the big chorus on "Who's Kissing You Tonight" is all Nashville, but the chugging twin guitars on the album's title track are more in line with vintage .38 Special than anything you're likely to hear coming out of Music City. And if "My Memory Ain't What It Used to Be" never quite seems to get off the ground, the roaring "Johnny Cash" and the more subtly uplifting "No" both make up for it. And his duet with Miranda Lambert on "Grown Woman" is a slow-burning gem. (If you need more cowbell, consult the brilliantly rollicking "I Break Everything I Touch.") ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
