{"id":39627,"date":"2006-01-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/time-well-wasted\/"},"modified":"2006-01-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-31T00:00:00","slug":"time-well-wasted","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/time-well-wasted\/","title":{"rendered":"Time Well Wasted"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The fun thing about a reasonably intelligent artist
\nworking in the country genre is, there are just so damn many
\nstereotypes to rebel against. And while Time Well Wasted<\/i>
\nmight not smash as many boundaries as, say, Brokeback
\nMountain<\/i>, it does a fair job of expanding horizons, while also
\npaying homage to the past.<\/p>\n

Paisley, who first came to attention as a precocious
\nteenaged talent sharing stages with much bigger stars at the Grand
\nOle Opry, has matured into a full-fledged star himself, and this
\ndisc finds him near the top of his game. He writes or co-writes
\nmost of these songs, and they are sprinkled with a keen
\nself-awareness and biting sense of humor that push the envelope
\nuntil the album feels in places like a parody of a country album…
\nand then he reels you back in with a big-hearted ballad right out
\nof the George Jones\/George Strait new traditionalist school.<\/p>\n

That dichotomy — between rebellion against and
\nembrace of country music traditions — makes Time Well
\nWasted<\/i> feel like an album Garth Brooks could have made, if he
\nhadn’t been so busy being GARTH BROOKS all the time. It’s
\nbig-hearted, earnest, lovable and fun — the main difference being,
\nPaisley’s humor has a distinctly self-mocking edge.<\/p>\n

“Alcohol,” for example, catalogs the many things that
\nresult from and\/or get blamed on the title substance, but saves the
\nsharpest skewer for Paisley & co., punching up a chorus line
\nabout “helping white people dance.” “I’ll Take You Back” is a
\nbrilliantly wicked four-minute compendium of bitter-breakup
\none-liners (e.g. “When politicians everywhere stop telling lies \/
\nAnd only state the facts \/ Right then, that’s when \/ I’ll take you
\nback.”). “You Need A Man Around Here” is more standard country fare
\nin its good ole boy posture towards a feminine household, but
\ncountry music doesn’t get much better than lines like this: “I
\nhaven’t been in a room this clean \/ Since they took my appendix
\nout.”<\/p>\n

The weak spot on the album is the ballads. Paisley
\nhas a big, pleasant voice, and he layers the slower songs here with
\na straight-laced earnestness that seems intended to balance the
\nhumor he pushes in other songs. Which is all well and good from a
\nmarketing perspective, but the songs themselves — with a couple of
\nexceptions — are fairly predictable affairs. The exceptions would
\nbe “Waitin’ On A Woman,” whose gently sexist premise nonetheless
\nbuilds to a punchline that’s both witty and moving, and “Love Is
\nNever-Ending,” which just felt so damn sincere it sucked me in.<\/p>\n

In the category of the inexplicable lies the
\nquote-unquote bonus track, “Cornography,” which finds Paisley,
\nGeorge Jones, Bill Anderson, Little Jimmy Dickens and Dolly Parton
\ndoing some kind of wacked-out radio play that makes no sense
\nwhatsoever, is riddled with double entendres involving Parton’s two
\nmost notable assets, and ends up making you laugh not at the
\nroutine itself, but at the pure dementedness it took to put this on
\nan album in the first place.<\/p>\n

There are things you might criticize Brad Paisley
\nfor, but taking himself or his music too seriously is not one of
\nthem. For the most part, this album is a hoot.<\/p>\n

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