‘Good Time’ Lives Up to its Name. Just.

By R. Keith Rugg, 10-06-08

	Caption: Alan Jackson has more CMA nominations than any other artist.

Alan Jackson’s latest album, Good Time, is just that- a good time.  But, mind you, not a great time.  There’s some solid tracks that show just why Jackson is (as Ray Scott notes in his country song, My Kind of Music) a living legend.  And that make it understandable why he’s won a Grammy and why he just recently celebrated the astonishing milestone of having sold 50 million albums.

But there’s also some tracks on this album that have the feel that they were just churned out to fill up some space on the disc.  Granted, Jackson writes all of this stuff himself, so after so many albums and so many years of music making, there’s bound to be some filler material.

The first single released off of Good Time for radio air play was Small Town Southern Man.  It is solid, comfortable country music.  Next up was the title track, Good Time, which is a catchy boot-scootin’ weekend song, with an amusing video to go along with it.  Although both are good enough to do credit to Alan Jackson’s reputation, I don’t think that either of these tracks are really show-stoppers.  (Although some might disagree with me on that, seeing as both climbed to No. 1 on the charts…)

The third and current single off of this album is Country Boy.  This song is in the vein of “I’m better than the other guys ‘cause I drive a pick-up and I’m cool ‘cause I’m from the country.” It’s a common theme, but one that you usually hear from younger singers who are still in the stages of breaking into the big time.  So right off the bat, I’m a little leery to hear this from Jackson.  But that could have been forgiven, had he decided to turn his considerable talent on this song.  However, Country Boy is just kind of substandard; a little catchy, but not really a very good song.  A lot of its sound is very much like some of his previous music, which in this case, isn’t such a good thing.  As I noted earlier, when you write as much music as Jackson has, there’s going to be some repetition, but in this case, it just doesn’t work.

Back in the mid-‘90s, one of the editors at New Country Music voiced a similar complaint about Jackson’s Chattahoochee, saying, “It’s just Summertime Blues with different words.” Which maybe wasn’t entirely fair, since Jackson’s Summertime Blues was a cover (something like the seventh in the song’s history) and Jackson put Chattahoochee out a few years BEFORE he recorded Summertime Blues, but if you listen to the two side-by-side, you’ve got to kind of admit that the editor had at least a small point.  (And unlike Bob Wire, it wasn’t under his hat.  Or at least, it wasn’t under his hat. (or at least, it wasn’t only under his hat.)

So the score on what’s been released as singles from Good Time now stands at two out of three, and as the saying goes, that ain’t bad.  We’ll see what comes down the pike in the future, and to help you keep score on your own, here’s a track-by-track analysis.  (Scores are based on 100 points possible per track, and the final album score is determined by dividing the total track scores by the number of tracks on the album.)

1. Good Time:  Discussed above.  Score- 78.
2. Small Town Southern Man:  Discussed above.  Score- 80.
3. I Wish I Could Back Up:  Lost love and remorse.  Score- 80.
4. Country Boy:  Discussed above.  Score- 35.
5. Right Where I Want You:  Good love.  Score- 60.
6. 1976:  Nostalgic reminiscence.  Score 58.
7. When the Love Factor’s High:  Good love.  Score- 50.
8. Long, Long Way:  Upbeat lost love.  Score- 88.
9. Sissy’s Song:  Mourning.  Score- 90.
10. I Still Like Bologna:  Bemused look at modern life.  Score- 70.
11. Never Loved Before: Love found, duet with Martina McBride.  Score- 72.
12. Nothing Left to Do:  Love and sex.  Score- 40.
13. Listen to Your Senses:  Don’t leave, I love you.  Score- 72.
14. This Time:  Ready for love again.  Score- 82.
15. Laid Back ‘n’ Low Key (Cay).  Island vacation.  Score- 70.
16. If You Want to Make Me Happy:  Sorrowful drinking.  Score- 88.
17. If Jesus Walked the World Today:  Religious what-if.  Score- 78.

Total = 1191.  Average = 70.

But I’ll throw him a bone for at least putting so many tracks on this album, say another two points, and an extra three more just because I respect him so much.  Gives us a grand total of 75 for the album.  As you can see from the scores, the standouts are Sissy’s Song, Long, Long Way, and If You Want to Make Me Happy (which is another track that might sound a little bit like some of his earlier stuff, but in this case, that’s a good thing...)

So. 75.  What’s that, something like a C or a C+ or something?  I’ll say it again- this album is a good time, but just not a great time.