Luke Bryan
Tailgates & Tanlines
Release Date: Aug 9, 2011
Genre(s): Country
Record label: Capitol
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Album Review: Tailgates & Tanlines by Luke Bryan
Fairly Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating B+
Now that Blake Shelton’s playing to pop fans thanks to The Voice, there’s an opening in Nashville for the down-home horndog with a heart of gold. Bryan puts himself up for the gig on his feisty third album, asking one gal to shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek, and bragging about his moonshine stash in a cypress stump. (Bottoms up, ladies!) Several snoozy ballads dampen his mojo near the end, but Tailgates & Tanlines mostly shines.
Based on rating 2.0/5
Nashville’s B list has always been full of serviceable singers who are able to build lengthy careers on albums that spawn a couple of radio hits without ever doing anything the least bit distinctive or halfway interesting. Luke Bryan’s third album, Tailgates & Tanlines, falls into that same trap, and it places him alongside the likes of Jake Owen and Jason Michael Carroll as a second-tier act. Bryan has a pleasant, if slightly nasal, baritone, but there isn’t a vocal performance on Tailgates & Tanlines that couldn’t be replicated by any number of other guys on Music Row.
Opinion: Excellent
Luke BryanTailgates & Tanlines(Capitol Nashville)Rating: Luke Bryan has been going full steam ahead since he burst onto the country music scene in 2007 with his debut hit “All My Friends Say.” With six Top 10 hits (three of which were No. 1 singles), and two hit albums under his belt, Bryan delivers his third album Tailgates & Tanlines, which solidifies his place among the best of today’s country male vocalists. Bryan co-wrote eight of the thirteen new tracks with some of Nashville’s most celebrated heavy-hitters (Rhett Akins, Josh Kear, Dallas Davidson), including the hit “Country Girl (Shake It For Me),” which has saturated airwaves, becoming Bryan’s fastest-rising single to date.