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I was a big fan when Joe emerged on the scene, but recently he seems to have stalled a bit; there seems to be a lack of ambition artistically, settling for good but not great. I still like his voice and musical approach a lot, but I wish he would pick material of a consistently high quality.
I mostly agree, both with the review and with Occasional Hope’s above comment. There are a few pieces in place here for a strong album, with great vocals and solid traditional-leaning arrangements, but the song material is not of a high enough caliber for the album as a whole to be a truly outstanding effort.
“Somebody’s Mama” didn’t strike me as a potential hit single, but it’s probably my favorite track on the album, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it sent to radio. I didn’t care for the title track though, as it reminded me too much of disposable efforts like Josh Turner’s “Everything Is Fine” and Darius Rucker’s “Alright” – It just seems like that kind of song has been done too much.
I like Joe enough to have 30 songs of his on my iPod. I enjoy his voice and he’s capable of making good music. Unfortunately, you’ve got to find them as album tracks rather than hearing them as singles most of the time. My favorite song on this album is the final one.
On a different note, I’m noticing that moe and more albums only have 10 songs on them these days. I kow that used to be the standard, but I guess I’ve been spoiled in the last decade and a half, because I can’t help but feel an album is slight if it doesn’t at least have 11 songs.
I was thinking the same thing, Leeann. There does seem to be a trend lately to going back to just 10 songs per album. I guess we’ve gotten a little spoiled by bonus tracks and deluxe editions.
Ten songs was the standard in the CD era. The classic country albums by Strait, Randy Travis, Garth, Clint, Alan Jackson and others from that era like Tritt, Chesnutt, Diffie, Lawrence, Tippin, Patty all had 10 cuts. I’ll take those over 20 cuts from Joe 5-cents.
My favorite songs so far are the title track and “How I Wanna Go” but a few others may grow on me. I agree with OH that overall his material could be better. I passed on his last album, “Old Things New” and still consider “Man with a Memory” to be his best effort.