Blake Shelton
Bringing Back the Sunshine
He’s been coasting on his celebrity status and his brand of aw-shucks humor for years, so it’s encouraging that Blake Shelton’s Bringing Back the Sunshine seems less phoned-in than its predecessors.
The set is still characterized by a mellow feel-good vibe that is never challenging or interesting in any meaningful way, but the songs are at least intermittently better-written than what many of Shelton’s chart-topping contemporaries are peddling. “Good Country Song” and lead single “Neon Light” are both throwbacks in their structure to the hits of the late 80s and early 90s, while “Lonely Tonight” is elevated by Shelton’s vocal chemistry with Ashley Monroe.
Still, as with the pizzas Shelton hocks for Pizza Hut, Sunshine is stuffed with a whole lot of processed cheese and lacks real sustenance, so it lives or dies by Shelton’s charisma.
Recommended Tracks: “Lonely Tonight,” “Good Country Song”
Sadly, it’s because of Ashely Monroe’s inclusion on “Lonely Tonight” that I can’t stand it. It’s such a terrible mainstream showcase for what she can really do, which the majority has no clue about, like we all do.
She got it right. “You Ain’t Dolly (And You Ain’t Porter)” showcases her talents while also showing off just who good Blake is when he’s given a quality arrangement to work with. It wasn’t mainstream country, but it succeeds where “Lonely Tonight” fails.
I initially thought this album was OK, but upon further reflection, I felt it was his most phoned-in album to date. It had maybe two songs on it that I thought stood out: “Lonely Tonight” and “Anyone Else.” Aside from that, it was just the most forgettable album of 2014.