Keith Urban
Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing

(Capitol)

First Appeared in The Music Box, December 2006, Volume 13, #12

Written by John Metzger

On his latest outing Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing, Keith Urban doesn’t make any dramatic alterations to his style. Of course, this shouldn’t come as a tremendous surprise given the platinum-level sales that he has been achieving as well as the various music industry awards that he has been accumulating since the release of his self-titled solo debut. Yet, despite the fact that it’s the country charts that he’s been climbing and the country trophies that he’s been winning, his music bears only the faintest hint of Nashville twang. The only difference between Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing and his previous efforts is that, on the new album, he has moved even further into a pop-rock vein, a notion that is emphasized fully by the crisp, thunderously propulsive rhythms provided by drummer Chris McHugh.

In and of itself, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Urban long has had grander aspirations, and scattered throughout Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing are hints that he just might succeed in pulling them off. Once in a Lifetime, for example, bears more of a resemblance to U2 than it does to Hank Williams; Faster Car’s hook-heavy melody owes a debt, at least in part, to The Beatles; and in covering Elton John’s Country Comfort on his 2004 outing Be Here, Urban laid the groundwork for the Paul Buckmaster-inspired string arrangements that adorn Shine and I Can’t Stop Loving You. Elsewhere’s he’s joined by Ronnie Dunn on the rousing post-Katrina rocker Raise the Barn, while Tu Compañía is reminiscent of the soulful folk-pop of Kenny Loggins.

The biggest problem with Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing, however, lies with Urban’s execution. On the one hand, he’s willing to take a few risks by using a choir to introduce God Made Woman and adding an R&B- inflected horn section to Faster Car. Similarly, his guitar accompaniments typically elevate the material by alternately adding to the urgency of Shine and winding tastefully through cuts like I Told You So and Stupid Boy. On the other hand, he has a tendency of bending his songs until they resemble nothing more than arena-ready fodder — so much so that the tunes nearly collapse under the weight his formulaic approach. Ultimately, Urban’s bid to be an amiable superstar keeps him from achieving something greater, and as a result, Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing is merely a pleasantly innocuous effort rather than the bold artistic statement of which he clearly is capable of making.

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50th Annual Grammy Award Winner:
Best Male Country Vocal Performance
Stupid Boy

Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2006 The Music Box