Title: Another example of Nashville's current identity crisis, circa 2003
Review: Yawn. Overproduced, overly wordy, prettyboy country. Wayne has an okay voice, but he doesn't seem fully in control of his product, and has an unfortunate penchant for needlessly elaborate, stagily pseudo-intellectual material, like "True Friends," a song about two childhood friends who meet in jail -- one's a prison guard, and the others a convict -- and "Papers Angels," a shamelessly sentimentalized issue song about abducted children. Oh, and then there's also "I Love You This Much," a weeper about some guy trying to get close to his distant dad, complete with swelling string sections and gushing vocals. Yawn, again. Memo to Nashville: can we just agree to keep the predictable, made-for-Dr. Phil, sensitive-guy, psychobabble songs down to a minimum, at least from here on? Maybe add a little twang from time to time as well? Thanks. (Axton)
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