Brad Paisley - Moonshine in the Trunk

[StevePulaski]

Moonshine in the Trunk (2014)
By: Brad Paisley

Rating: ★★★

The workaholic country singer with the bulging biceps, drop-dead sexy build, and sun-bleached cowboy hat Brad Paisley only managed to chart average grounds with his 2013 release Wheelhouse, which, despite having several singles, was the first album since his instrumental release Play in 2008 that failed to have one of those singles reach number one on the charts. Wheelhouse helped make headlines with songs like "Accidental Racist," the corny, country Kumbaya anthem Paisley did with rapper LL Cool J pleading for southern pride not to be mistaken for racism, but floundered in the department of making successful singles and hits.

This kind of middling success is recognized by Paisley in the opening track of his new album Moonshine in the Trunk, titled "Crushin' It," which brings back a collectively original and basic style to Paisley's occasionally ambitious and far-reaching country ballads. "Crushin' It" combines steel guitar riffs with briskly-paced instrumentation as he utters the lines referencing his questionable state in country music, "I sure could use an attaboy or a big old high five. I'd love to hear 'you're killing it, dude,' yeah it's been a long time since I hit one out of the park or nailed it as they say. I guess I've been in a dry spell but that's about to change." The song is a solid opening for an album that pulls no punches and delivers basic country music.

Paisley is understandably caught in the middle of personal ambition with his music and the need to please his executives, who have long been satisfied with his ability to top the charts, sell hundreds-of-thousands of albums, and perform in front of sold out crowds year after year. Even when stripping fifteen songs down to the most basic, modern country music one can find, Paisley finds ways to impress in surprising ways, with songs like "High Life," my pick for the album's strongest tune, which humorously details Paisley's family running into loads of money through frivolous lawsuits and features Carrie Underwood. "River Bank," the album's lead single, is the epitome of a modern country song, detailing late-night hangouts with great people, slugging Bud Light from a cooler of ice that was bought and paid for by the power of a ten-dollar winning lottery ticket, "Gone Green" illustrates a unique little story of a redneck's choice to pitch in and help the environment, and "4WP" bears more of Paisley's trademark hilarious lyrics by detailing his efforts to four-wheel park in his four-wheel drive while on dates.

Scatterplotted in the album are lesser tunes, like "Limes" and "You Shouldn't Have To," which are little other than safe, conformist tunes to fill an album, in addition to the album's bonus track "Me and Jesus," which is preachy and frustratingly corny (which happens somewhat often for Paisley's more thematically-ambitious tunes). Yet for every song on the album that does less than impress, we have another one bearing lyrics like "Still, can you imagine if we ever struck it? I’d go shoot tequila, take a lime and suck it. And we’d tell our bosses they can do the same, and we’ll find a big cruise ship and buy the whole dang thing." Paisley's ability to take a song with a fiercely common theme or concept (not hard when you're working in the country genre) and put a clever or humorous spin on it keeps him in the game, and when he gives shoutouts to his older works, like his album Mud on the Tires (which I still deem my favorite of his), it reminds us why we still love him as an artist.

Last to mention is the titular jam of the album, which is another song that provides for a hilarious simile about getting the hell out of dodge. Moonshine in the Trunk may not be the most impressive or subversive country album all year (I still feel that honor goes to the inimitable Colt Ford with his country-rap album Thanks for Listening), but the album thoroughly reminds me why I find Paisley such an engaging singer and one who continuously humors as well as excites with every new piece of work he churns out.

Recommended tracks (in order): "High Life," "River Bank," "Moonshine in the Trunk," "Crushin' It," and "4WP."