Brad Paisley 5th Gear CD

Like his friend Vince Gill, Brad Paisley has achieved the often-difficult feat of reconciling being an entertainer and world-class guitarist. He's proven that on four admirable albums, and 5th Gear follows in that vein. Certainly "Ticks," an airy, radio-friendly ditty, is not the true substance here. That comes with such superior fare as the insightful "All I Wanted Was a Car" and "Online," a sly satire of people's Web facades. While his duet with Carrie Underwood ("Oh Love") is a bit cut and dried, Paisley ably handles "Letter to Me," "It Did," and "Mr. Policeman," a 21st-century outrun-the-law tune. The closing hymn, "When We All Get to Heaven," and ripping instrumental "Throttleneck" are Paisley at his best. It's admirable that he invites his venerable buddies, Little Jimmy Dickens, George Jones, Vince Gill, and Bill Anderson, along with Dolly Parton, to join in, but the obligatory "Kung Pao Buckaroos" skit is wearing a bit thin. Better to feature them musically, the way he includes Dickens, Gill, and Anderson on "Bigger Fish to Fry." In a time where lines between county and pop are blurring far too much, it's comforting to know Paisley still realizes and respects the differences. --Rich Kienzle

Highlighted by the smash first single, "Ticks," a goofy-sexy ode to nudity al fresco, Brad Paisley's FIFTH GEAR maintains his string of albums neatly balanced between light pop-oriented material and more traditional country. The latter is best exemplified by the twangy guitar instrumental "Throttleneck," the reverent "When We All Get To Heaven," and the tuneful "Bigger Fish To Fry," featuring guest vocals by Vince Gill, Bill Anderson, and Little Jimmy Dickens.
Elsewhere, a lovely ballad duet with Carrie Underwood, "Oh Love," keeps an eye to Nashville's present as well as its past. As on most of Paisley's albums, the main lyrical topic, even more than the usual love songs, is what it means to be a man in contemporary America: "I'm Still A Guy" is perhaps the most obvious song on the topic, but the country rocker "Mr. Policeman," the wry character study "Online" (a song about Internet personas at odds with reality), and the surprisingly philosophical opener "All I Wanted Was A Car" flirt with the concept as well.
Brad Paisley is in a strangely nostalgic mood on 5th Gear, its title both a reference to its status as Paisley's fifth studio album and to the numerous car songs scattered across this album. Those car songs aren't mere celebrations of magic machinery; they're infused with nostalgia -- he holds to a very teenage interpretation of the power of the car, meaning that the automobile is the embodiment of freedom, and this isn't his only gaze back to adolescence, either. He's even writing letters back to his 17-year-old self, consoling him that things are gonna turn out OK after all is said and done, which gets to the core of 5th Gear: Paisley is happy about how things have turned out but he still can't help but look back just a little wistfully. He may be a little melancholy about his teenage wildlife, but he acknowledges that things don't get any better than this in not one, but two songs -- in "It Did," where a storybook romance just grows stronger, and "Better Than This," where he says the only way the party could improve is if there were a 1,000-gallon keg and Merle and Willie provided a live soundtrack. It's a curious mix of acceptance and regret, but it's appropriate for somebody who is starting to realize that he's settling into his mid-thirties, recognizing that things are changing, sometimes not always in comfortable ways. Case in point: he snipes at Internet nerds sequestered in their basements, lying about themselves on MySpace in "Online," an obvious joke that comes just a bit too close to bullying, but he saves himself with his smarts -- not just verbal (obvious they may be, the jokes are cutting) but musical, as he ends it with a marching band that delivers an aural punch line set up by thRolling Stone (p.72) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Smart, low-profile Nashvillean Paisley's sixth album features not one but two songs about how adulthood beats adolescence."
Entertainment Weekly (p.71) - "[T]he guy's a vivid nostalgist, and his duet with Carrie Underwood is a harmonic delight." -- Grade: B+