Emotional Traffic

Tim McGraw | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Label: Curb Records
• Total Length: 51:47
• Genres:
  • Country
• ASIN: B006UO57QM
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,937 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Crossover Effort January 26, 2012

By Vortexman

Format:MP3 Music

I'm not a huge country fan, and besides his movie roles I only accidentally discovered Tim McGraw & his music a couple of weeks ago when I read that he's the son of one of my Miracle Mets heroes, Tug McGraw (the subject of "Live Like you were Dying"), and then read further that he's got a good head on his shoulders too. I bought his #1's double album because it was $5 and I wanted to get to know his music better. Well, I only liked about half of his previous hits. I much prefer Garth Brooks. Then Amazon featured Emotional Traffic for $3.99. The clips sounded pretty good, and different, so I bought it. Wow! From the onset of the first unique track "Halo", I knew I was in for something special, kind of like when Loretta Lynn recorded "Portland Oregon." I love progressive country rock, and this album crosses over into that genre as well as others, including pop/R&B with the Ne Yo duet. The production seems to favor rock guitars, which is fine with me. It sounds even even better with headphones. There still is some twang, and the requisite Jesus song, but even those are palatable. Great job, Tim, this is one of my favorite albums in quite some time!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Start to Finish a Winner!! January 25, 2012

By J. Bilby

Format:Audio CD

Love Good Music, I enjoy finding an artist that I really never related to and be totally awe'd by it and on this release, I took in these songs as they came out and now that the whole 12 songs are out and I've listened to it as a whole I gave this one a Big 5 stars, this is quite a listening experience, never new Tim Mcgraw had all these sides to him and has put together a collection of tunes that is so varied and has so much to say about life. Getting older and looking at things in your 40's and looking back and remembering all those little things makes for an interesting Hybrid of musical styles of Country, Rock, Adult Contemporary, Pop and even a little Funk! not an easy feat for any artist but this is a welcome kick in the musical ass, glad to find this gem! If you're like me and you have so many styles in your collection from blues, rock, folk, world and everything in between, give this one a listen, its good! Great real songwriting!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Back to the early 00"s. January 25, 2012

By Austin Dalyai

Format:Audio CD

Tim has long been a favorite of mine. A main-stay in my top 5 artists. This release does nothing to move him out of that category, however, it does nothing to move him any higher either.
In recent years, Tim has taken to recording with his road band, The Dancehall Doctors, which has helped give his albums a more Country feel than the releases from the late 90's. In 2009, with Southern Voice, we heard Tim start to eveolve a little more, and add a little more Rock to the Country, but in a much more cohesive and powerful way than what he had done years before. With this release, it sounds as if Tim took a musical trip back to his Pre-Road-Band-In-The-Studio days. While some might see this as a bad thing, and I myself, was hoping it wouldn't be this way, Emotional Traffic has turned out to be a very powerful album. Sadly, Tim's band only performs on one track here, and you can here imediately, that their influence is gone from the rest of the record. But if you remember back to his brilliant Set This Circus Down, you'll remember that Tim had a lot of musical magic even without his band in tow.
We are treated to some arrangements that Tim hasn't really used in the past, to give some of the tunes a darker, jazzy type feel. The first two tracks are the best evidence of this. There is the token McGraw penned song, which has become par only in recent years. These are usually good, stand-out tracks, and the ballad chosen here is no different. Very strong and well produced, and even co-written with a woman who knows her ballads, Martina McBride.
The inclusion of last year's smash Felt Good On My Lips fits very well on this album, and it's placement in the running order provides the perfect kick once the tempo starts to slow.
Something I'm not used to getting with a McGraw album, is the singles being the strongest tracks. But here, sadly enough, it is true. Not to take away from the other songs, but the record company made a good push to get the better tracks on the radio.
Overall, it seems Tim has become not too offended about them "Put(ing) pop in (his) Country" anymore. It's not what I expected in this point in Tim's career, but the album does stand out as a very well performed and produced piece, which will seemingly stand the test of time. Emotional Traffic will get better with each listen, as does each of Tim's releases, and will remain a beloved part of any fan's collection.

Stand out tracks include;
The Rocking but mellow opener, "Halo."
The curent radio hit "Better Than I used to Be."
The Christianity-on-sleeve "Touchdown Jesus."
Last Year's rocker "Felt Good On My Lips."
McGraw's own, Inspirational "I Will Not Fall Down."
and
The Introspective closer "Die By My Own Hand."