If there is one common complaint in the music industry today, it is the homogeneity of the supposedly different genres. This fact holds especially true in the country scene, which has become increasingly dominated by pop artists. Much of this is because of the massive success of superstar Garth Brooks, but he managed to stay true to the nature of country music.
Until now we still could usually find solace in the crooning of Alan Jackson and Brooks and Dunn, and we still could rely on the semi-crossover artists like Brooks and Tim McGraw for that good old down-home, honky-tonk music. But now we have country boy bands that reach number four on CMT's weekly top video countdown, and some of our old friends are starting to further explore this mainstream culture.
So when I picked up McGraw's newest release, "Set This Circus Down," I had in mind the sounds of songs like "Indian Outlaw," "I Like It, I Love It" and, more recently, "Where the Green Grass Grows" and "Something Like That." I was hoping this new CD would be a mix of songs about love lost and love won, of hard drinking and partying. However, by the end of "Circus" I wasn't sure at all about what I had just listened to.
Perhaps it's appropriate that the theme running through this album is one of change. McGraw definitely presents us with a more pop-sounding style, though one that isn't surprising given the success of his wife, Faith Hill, and the fact that he has been slowly edging toward it with each new release. But despite these leanings, "Circus" is by no means an outright pop record.
The majority of "Circus" is definitely country. In fact, it starts very promising with a track entitled "The Cowboy in Me," and continues strong until the third song, "You Get Used To Somebody." Here the sounds start to become a little muddied - not quite country, but not quite really in the mainstream. However, the use of synthesizers and distorted electric guitar sounds are actually quite disturbing on "Angel Boy" and "Unbroken."
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The one track that really suffers, though, is the salsa-like "Let Me Love You." Imagine McGraw crossed with Enrique Iglesias and you get the picture. It's rather scary and completely fails as a song. For the most part, all the other tracks are country or at least fall somewhere in the acceptable middle ground between country and pop.
In truth, none of the tracks on "Circus" hold up to McGraw's previous successes. However, it's not for lack of trying; many songs aspire to the intensity and fire that some of his earlier works contained. The only hard-rocking songs that smack of McGraw are "Telluride," "Things Change" and "Smilin'," if listeners can get past the distracting studio backup singers. Many of the songs are of the slow ballad variety, like "You Get Used to Somebody," "Why We Said Goodbye" and "Forget About Us." But on every track, McGraw's sweet tenor voice is something to be enjoyed.
Older McGraw fans and old-school country fans may be slightly disappointed by this album as it tends to lean a little more to the mainstream side than previous ones. However, it retains the wholesome, intelligent lyrics that are lacking in many songs today.
Like the lyrics of "Things Change," "Some say it's too country/ Some say it's too rock and roll/ But it's just good music/ If you can feel it in your soul." With a little more feeling, McGraw could have had a real winner on his hands.
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