Big & Rich: Album of the Decade?

Heh. Interestingly enough, this is often what I was thinking about many (not all) reactions to Justified.

MANY (NOT ALL)

If needed, I will e-mail an mp3 of that on an endless loop.

people have been writing about how the album sounds, not just what it stands for, ever since the thing came out (all through this thread, and elsewhere). ditto justin's album, so i don't get that complaint at all. but that's just me. + "real world," "save a horse," and "wild west show" are three of the best songs on the album, to my ears. though it's still neat how people gravitate toward different tracks.

i think an album can have enormous merit and *still* be sort of misjudged (not necessarily "overrated") by its critics on account of what it represents in the marketplace. but like i said, this is a skepticism i'm happy to put aside right now. i know many people have been writing about how the record sounds--the reason i'm more open to it than my reaction to the single would normally allow.

xpost

This will sidetrack massively if I really get into it, but I'll just say that more than once I had a (completely individual) sensation that if that album didn't exist it would have to be invented, that it can be seen to function as a massive wish fulfillment of (in the VERY VERY broadest of terms) early 21st century teen-pop-into-hip-hop in the highest of profiles. Please note I say 'seem to function,' though, and that Chuck's observation is fully accurate.

As for Big and Rich again, they can't get loud enough for me. I want speed-metal chords as hooks next.

I'm betting it's Metallica's cover of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page." Which it doesn't sound like really, but ...
Nevertheless, I'm having trouble getting overly excited about this album as a whole. There are certainly some fine songs, and I understand the thought process behind it, but ... eh. I guess I'll give it some time.

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Is genre-crossing all it takes to become the album of the year these days?

And didn't Kid Rock kind of do this already?

Yes he did. But Kid Rock is getting very hard to defend, because a lot of groups (Big and Rich especially) are doing what Kid Rock tried to do, except a billion times better.

That's Big Kenny and John Rich, with rappin' sidekick Cowboy Troy, who's black, which of course, is treated as a huge novelty. Billed as "country without prejudice" - in other words, country that recognises that other genres actually exist - this monumentally straightforward record's claims to innovation are like asking a woman to be wildly appreciative that her husband just about manages to cook a fry-up once a month. Horse of a Different Color sounds like Billy Ray Cyrus driving a juggernaut - that's how innovative it is. If you squint really hard you might just be able to convince yourself there's something faintly homoerotic about the whole ghastly enterprise, but that's pushing it. Actually, peek inside the booklet and you will find Kenny and John wearing Wild West-style dresses and, natch, ironic expressions. Like the Bush twins at the MTV awards, this is arch-conservatism in a half-hearted search for cool. Big? Almost certainly and hence, quite probably, rich too. Not, by any means, clever.

FIVE STARS

Fatbelly Jones. Marcello...well, there's nothing to say here.

I sent for a copy of the Big and Rich album and have listened to it.

Having done so, I agree with Mr Peschek's conclusions.