X (Ten)

X (Ten)

Where many of his peers spent the first decade of the 21st century spinning country music into radio pop or beachy twang a-la Jimmy Buffett, Trace Adkins kept his new traditional tunes both rootsy and rocking. The catchy opener "Sweet" from his tenth album X pumps out hard twang, recalling ‘70s southern rock acts like .38 Special or The Marshall Tucker Band. Only the glossy production and lyrics that muse on a gal with tattoos and piercings keep the song from sounding completely retro. The uplifting "Happy to Be Here" is a lightly driving number that nicely contrasts Adkins' baritone voice with floating pedal steel notes. What sounds like a lush string orchestra opens "All I Ask For Anymore," the album's first ballad. It's interesting that Adkins can sing about loving his wife one moment and then suddenly switch gears on "Marry for Money," a honky-tonkin' number with lyrics fantasizing about landing an attractive rich woman. Of course it all makes sense when you consider that he landed some of Nashville's A-list songwriters to pen all of these songs, the most impressive being "Til the Last Shot's Fired," a stunningly beautiful anti-war piece written from the perspective of dead soldiers' spirits.

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