In 1992, Billy Ray Cyrus gave the world the inescapable hit
\n“Achy Breaky Heart.” Grunge was still in its infancy stage, Snoop
\nDogg hadn’t even been introduced to the mainstream and rock music
\nwas about to die another death before getting resurrected another
\nthree or four times.<\/p>\n
As many detractors as Billy Ray Cyrus has, you have to admire
\nhim for his resiliency. Many rap, rock and grunge bands have long
\nsince left the scene since 1992. And Billy Ray Cyrus’ latest album,<\/p>\n
Time Flies<\/i>, is probably his finest hour. Cyrus doesn’t have
\nthe breakout, catchy hit like “Achy Breaky” this time around, but
\nthe album contains a restrained modesty that makes the lyrical
\ncheese go down easy.<\/p>\n
Time Flies makes no pretense in its lack of risk-taking. Billy
\nRay has about an equal portion of ballads, barroom raisers and
\nemotional confessionals worthy of the most clich\u00e9d PAX
\ntelevision specials. In a wince-worthy moment, Cyrus name-drops his
\naforementioned hit in “Hard to Leave.”
\nTime Flies<\/i> has a slew of songwriters at its disposal,
\nleaving those who want to hear Cyrus’ true voice frustrated.<\/p>\n
The album itself is thankfully underproduced. Cyrus seems to
\nhave taken some hints from the alt-country movement, especially on
\ntracks such as “Close to Gone.” Unfortunately, Cyrus sticks an
\nunnecessary electric guitar riff at the end of many songs, proving
\nthat some survivors of country music’s excesses of the early ’90s
\ndon’t die easily. A bit more restraint and Cyrus could have had a
\nmemorable, if not predictable artistic detour into bluegrass —
\nthink Garth Brooks’ ghastly turn to glam rock, but with more
\nsuccess.<\/p>\n
The album ends with an acoustic version of “Some Gave All” — a
\nreminder about Cyrus’ past glories, as if those who pick up this
\nalbum didn’t know already. It ends the album on a modestly good
\nnote. At its best,
\nTime Flies<\/i> is not an embarrassment and will definitely go
\ndown in the ‘plus’ category of Cyrus’ record. Still, its typical,
\nmainstream country sound makes it perfect jukebox music — loud
\nenough to be heard, but sorely lacking in the emotional punch
\nneeded to resonate within listeners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6955],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-37810","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-billy-ray-cyrus","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37810","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37810"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}