I’m aware that there was some sort of fight going on between
\nGarth Brooks and his record company over this album’s release, but
\ndarn if I can remember what the big deal was all about. I do know
\nthat many of country’s stalwarts get their panties in a knot
\nwhenever you go, “Country? Yeah, I like country. I listen to Garth
\nBrooks!” Why? Because to many of them, Brooks is not country, he’s
\na pop artist with country influences. Thing is, this album –
\nBrooks’s’s seventh, explaining the title
\nSevens<\/i> – can be shown as a perfect example of what they’re
\ntalking about.<\/p>\n
What do I mean? Well, start by taking a look at how long each
\nsong is. All but one orbit the three-minute and under minute mark.
\nThat last song, “Fit For A King,” almost reaches the four-minute
\nmark – an amazing feat. Now, you could make the argument that songs
\nare as long as they should be. And some of the material works just
\nfine as is. However, it gets a bit problematic when EVERY song is
\nthis long. It gives the impression that Brooks may have gotten lazy
\nor that the problems that surrounded the recording sessions were
\nbigger than believed.<\/p>\n
The album kicks off with “Longneck Bottle,” which mixes country
\nwith some early rock’n’roll guitar. The alcohol motif continues
\nwith “Two Pi\u00f1a Coladas,” which begs the question, “When the
\nhell did Garth Brooks think he was Jimmy Buffett??” Both songs are
\na bit average, meaning there’s nothing thrilling about them. In
\nthat pile you can chuck “Cowboy Cadillac” – I thought cowboys were
\nseen as sissies with anything but a pickup! – “When There’s No One
\nAround” and the duet with Trisha Yearwood, “In Another’s Eyes.”
\nBoth of the last songs are very pop-influenced, but gain nothing
\nfrom that influence. Only the up-tempo and unispired “Do What You
\nGotta Do” ranks lower than them.<\/p>\n
Now, what does work here includes “Fit For A King,” which uses
\ngospel-like vocals in its chorus; the very-fun and up-tempo “Take
\nThe Keys To My Heart” and the incredibly tender “Belleau Wood.”
\n“You Move Me” and “I Don’t Have To Wonder” show how Brooks can mix
\nboth country and pop to create good music. At the same time, “She’s
\nGonna Make It” does prove Brooks can do country, while “How You
\nEver Gonna Know” shows he can mix different tempos into a good
\nsong.<\/p>\n
Get the idea that this album is a mixed affair for me? Good,
\nbecause that’s about what I got out of it. On one hand, Brooks is
\neasily able to create soft and tender moments that prove he’s above
\nand beyond being a simple country star. Then, he goes and wrecks it
\nby doing some of the weakest tracks I’ve heard. Some of it might
\nhave been the problems surrounding the recording of
\nSevens<\/i>. Some of it might be that he’s just been pushing
\nhimself during the past decade. I mean, within two years, he had
\nreleased his Chris Gaines project and tried out for the San Diego
\nPadres…. and don’t forget he’ll be with the New York Mets for
\nspring training this year! The man just can’t stop! Perhaps a bit
\nof a break would allow him to either strengthen the weak songs or
\nditch them out altogether. Oh well, hindsight is always 20\/10.<\/p>\n
While he kept his chart-topping ways alive with this album,
\nSevens<\/i> is not really the album to get you into Garth Brooks.
\nSure, it has some good and a few great moments, but this is more
\nfor the diehard fans. They’re the ones who keep his career going
\nand allow him to release both good and not-so good material. Brooks
\nis capable of melding both pop and country when he’s shooting for
\nit – that’s why he’s so popular – but sometimes he ought to be just
\none or the other, lest he push himself to mediocrity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":25292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6016],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36498","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-garth-brooks","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36498"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36498"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}