Customer Reviews

Let It Go

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

With his last two albums, Tim McGraw has been crafting the best music of his career. Gone is the "Indian Outlaw," the guy "likes it, loves it, and wants some more of it." Here is a McGraw who knows a good lyric when he hears it, who knows how to choose a song. He manages to make un-commercial material radio-ready, to take a song and make it his own.

On LET IT GO, he does it yet again. The album isn't quite as edgy as its two predecessors, but what it lacks in edginess, it makes up for in lyric and performance. One of McGraw's best qualities is his ability to take other artists' material and transform it into his own stuff; he does so here with Big Kenny's "Last Dollar," Lori McKenna's "I'm Workin'," Eddie Rabbit's "Suspicions," Anthony Smith's "Kristofferson" and "Shotgun Rider" (also co-written by Sherrie Austin and Jeffrey Steele), and the ever-reliable Warren Brothers' "Between the River and Me" and "Train #10" (the latter a co-write with McGraw).

There's not a song on here that lags too far behind...all of 'em (including the duet with Faith Hill, "I Need You") are high-caliber songs, performed wonderfully by McGraw and his band. However, if you want some highlites, I'd have to go with the stone-cold country of "Kristofferson" (an off-handed tribute song that, strangely, works) and "Shotgun Rider"; the exquisite "Whiskey and You;" the whimsical "Last Dollar"; and the revenge rocker "Between the River and Me" (McGraw's version is indeed noteworthy, but pales next to the original found on the Warren Brothers' WELL-DESERVED OBSCURITY album). Basically, it's hard to go wrong with this album, which may indeed be one of the best of McGraw's career. It's a thinking-man's commerical country album, bridging the gap between radio and alternative...and nobody does that better today than Tim McGraw.

Tim McGraw didn't get to be a country superstar by having the best voice in Nashville. He did it by having the best ear in town. Every Tim McGraw CD has been marked by the impeccable selection of songs. And "Let Go" continues the family tradition. It's another collection of powerful songs including "Train No. 10," "Shotgun Rider," "Put Your Lovin' On Me" and "Comin' Home." These alone would be enough to make this CD a success but wouldn't earn it 5 Stars. For that you need a little bit more and different.

And Tim gives us the extra effort with a kids' chorus on "Last Dollar," a Metallica-like break on the brilliant "Between The River And Me" and by overturning our expectations of the usual duet with Mrs. McGraw by not giving us another syrupy love song but by choosing a meditation on the addictive nature of love, "I Need You" (I need you like a needle needs a vein) in which even Faith sings with a desperate gravitas we don't expect from her.

Now don't think my saying Tim doesn't have the best voice in Nashville means he isn't a masterful singer, able to comfortably handle anything from the uptempo cowboy songs to the agonizingly honest ballads like this CD's brilliant "Nothing To Die For." As his songs show more maturity so do his vocals. He is no longer just a singer but a first class interpreter. His vocals take these high quality songs and elevates them further. He has handled the jump from superstar to artist with complete success. His creative vision and ability to wonderfully convey it is a rarity in music, especially country music with its pretty boys in hats and Shania wannabes.

The new Tim McGraw CD is a complete success that doesn't let it go after the music stops. It stays with you and leaves you wanting more.

"Let It Go," is not the best country CD you will hear. Nor is it the worst. What it just might be is the stepping stone to the next chapter in Tim McGraw's career - the chapter where he's taken seriously as an artist.

No more barbecue stains on his white t-shirt and that makes some of you sad, doesn't it? Well, I guess Tim could stay the same as he was twenty years ago and we could all go back to high school and the world could stop evolving. Tim's an artist and he's trying to become a better one. This record is a huge step in the right direction.

He shows on so many of the tracks that he can convey so many different emotions other than sappy love or high school reminiscing. It's the same metamorphosis that George Strait went through and moved his career right along through the stratosphere, and I believe McGraw will accompany him.

Strong songs, strong vocals, bold new direction for Tim.

I have every one of McGraw's CD's, and I always look forward to his new releases. I am sorry to say that on first listen, this CD was a bit disappointing. The message of many of the songs is just too heavy. Where is the fun? Where is the lighheartedness? "Last Dollar" is the most up-tempo song on the CD, and unfortunately, it does not measure up to past favorites like , "I Like It,I Love It" "Something Like That," Real Good Man," "Down on the Farm," or "Do You Want Frries With That."

Tim McGraw can do great with a tear jerker, like "Please Remember Me" and "Live Like You Were Dying," but none of the songs on this CD quite grab hold of me like those monster hits. Even his duet with Faith Hill is weak-- they never actually sing together on the song, they just take turns singing solos to each other.

The best tracks on the CD are "Let It Go," a powerful song with a great message and a catchy, repetitious chorus. And "Between the River and Me" is a great story song that you feel just a bit guilty for liking, given the subject matter and the message. He sings it with such intensity that it is frighteningly believable!

Most of his recent hits have been really slow, moving songs-- "If You're Reading This," "I Need You", "My Little Girl", "Like We Never Loved At All," "When the Stars Go Blue," "My Old Friend," "Drugs or Jesus." Even "Over and Over" with Nelly was rather mellow.

Enough already! You're great with the love songs, the sad songs, and the meaningful message songs. But c'mon! It's time to cut loose and have some fun! We want to stomp our feet and clap our hands!

"Let it Go" is a solid McGraw CD. It may not be the best CD of his but certainely one you will be glad you have in your collection. My favorite songs on the CD are: Last Dollar, Suspicions, Train #10, Between the River and Me, Comin' Home, and Shotgun Rider. These could all easily be singles in the future. The first part of the CD the songs, other than Last Dollar, all sound similar. That's one reason I enjoy all the songs on the second half so much better. I am getting sick of his duets with Faith. She's got a great voice, but she's not a favorite of mine. There is speculation that 07 will be the last time Tim and Faith will tour together. Thank god for that. Overall this CD is worth a four star rating. It would have been five but too many just so-so songs. I do think it's better than "Live Like You Were Dying." I don't know why people feel that is such a great CD. It has an awful depressing feel to it. The only songs I like on that CD are "My Old Friend" and "Back When." "Let it Go," in my humble opinion, is much better.

There are several gems on Tim McGraw's new Let It Go. My personal favorites are Suspicions and Shotgun Rider. There are several other solid songs on this CD. The trouble with rating a Tim McGraw CD is that you have to hold it up against the rest of his collection. This one falls into the middle of the pack, which will leave many fans disappointed. I have grown to appreciate the CD more after repeated listenings. I think the professional reviewer got it right when describing Shotgun Rider as McGraw's Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys. I thought the same thing when I first heard the song. It is a solid Country song that would be good in the 70's, 80's 90's, and into this decade.

The duet with Faith Hill is pretty good, I just am having trouble getting over the "like a needle needs a vein" verse.

This is a solid, but not spectacular album, that is much less ambitious than many of the other popular male country artists like Brad Paisley and Keith Urban. Four stars.

While the likes of Keith Urban or Rascal Flatts are incorporating strong pop influences (one must say: successfully) into their music, Tim McGraw is doing none of that. Even though one might be inclined (including myself) to believe that might also be the route he would take for his latest album, he did far from that.
To me, "Let It Go" is one of the most traditional albums, Tim has delivered to date and not only because the albums closer "Shotgun Rider" is a strone-traditional cowboy song, that is delivered and produced like it was 50 years old (and to me just sounds like that: outdated and boring).
On the other end of the spectrum you find the first single and album opener "Last Dollar", a happy, radio-friendly and sonically delightfully surprising song; of course having his girls singing the closing out chorus adds to its charm.
"I'm Workin'" is a thoughful mid-tempo song, that Tim has learned to do so well, about the thoughts that crawl up during a lonely night shift, symbolizing the state of affair of many of our lives: not enough time to even say "I love you".
The title cut has an infectious chorus and deals with new beginnings and is again mostly mid-tempo, just like most of the album seems to be used as a vehicle to do, what country has always been doing best: telling stories and not necessarily being dance music (in this case).
As you can already tell by the title "Whiskey and You" is traditional country, as is "Kristofferson". The latter, to me personally is disappointing, lyrics-wise. Kristofferson may have started out by getting drunk and writing songs about a woman leaving the bad guy, but to set a charismatic and politically active poet in that one stool sounds like a very one-dimensional and limited view to me, lacking respect.
On this album McGraw does two cover versions. "Between the River and Me" was written by his friends the Warren Bros. and it already was probably the best song on their album "Well Deserved Obscurity" a couple of years back. Even though the current version is not bad, it somehow lacks the bite of the original; maybe it is just the mellower voice of Tim Mcgraw, when he is telling this mysterious crime story about abuse and possible homicide that does somehow not catch on.
The second cover is one of most legendary hits by a highly underrated musician, who passed away way too soon: "Suspicions" by Eddie Rabbit. "Suspicions" was probably the first shot by Eddie at breaking away from a traditional country career. The sounds that started to come out of the workshops of Rabbit, Stevens and Malloy in the late 70's and early 80's could hardly be classified and were so unique, that they didn't fit in anywhere really. They mostly were so much ahead of its time (listen to the album "Step By Step" it you ever get to chance to still find it somewhere to discover what kind of sounds you can produce with guitars) that they still sound fresh and new 30 years later - especially "Suspicions", which had that strong R&B rhythm and a risky flute, contrasting nicely with Rabbits singing style! I personally think that every cover of that song can only pale to the original! McGraw does a good job (already for the fact of bringing that song back to the public) and he makes it a more live-sounding (less artificially produced) guitar-based song, than the original (no flute), unfortunately lacking bass. An honourful bow to the late Mr. Rabbit!
Another Warren Bros. write and probably the most edgy-rock oriented cut on the album is the cool "Train #10". Great production focus was set on the vocals, lifting them above the instrumentation for the Faith Hill duet "I Need You". Both of them shine on this clever song about love-addiction, going down easy.
Overall I would have wished for a few more musical risks, but maybe having the courage to make a more-or-less traditional country album is more than enough prowess and shows that Tim McGraw no longer needs to follow trends, but is setting them himself. And after all, recording "Suspicions" shows his respect for other risk-taking musicians and needs to be applauded anyways.

After being surprised by the weightier material on LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING, I found myself thinking perhaps I'd underestimated McGraw and he might be on the cusp of a classic. This album, sadly, has me thinking it was a nice one-off that probably won't be repeated. There's not much to match the reflection of "Can't Tell Me Nothin'", "Drugs or Jesus" and certainly not "Live Like You Were Dying" to be found here.

There are the occasional high points that rise above the bland fare so often churned out of the Nashville hit machine (the wrenching confession of "Whiskey and You" or the stark murder fantasy of "Between the River and Me" no doubt triggered by the abuse of Tim's past at the hands of his 1st father figure) but there's plenty of ho-hum material in between and some outright stinkers (the oh-so-cliched "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" sounds like it was made to fill the "happy country pop hit" slot and Tim sounds strained chasing the higher notes in his cover of Eddie Rabbitt hit "Suspicions").

HIGHLIGHTS:
The "drinking song" is a country staple and Tim turns in a nice one here with "Whiskey and You". ("One's a liar that helps hide me from my pain/And one's a long hard bitter truth/And that's the difference between the whiskey and you") "Between the River and Me" finds a 15 year old taking revenge on the man who was beating his mom in a creekside confrontation. ("I might have had a knife in my back pocket/I might have pulled it out before he saw it/That's all between the river and me") Besides a good story, it's also musically interesting, nearly bordering on punk aggression in spots.

LOWS:
"Suspicions" doesn't sound like it fits Tim's vocal range despite a nice musical arrangement that gives the tune a snaky, relaxed groove. I'll stick with the Rabbitt original on this one. "Last Dollar" could be any of the dime-a-dozen hat acts.

BOTTOM LINE:
Mediocre. Perhaps he'll go back to challenging himself a bit on the next disc.

THIS CD IS NOT THE LATEST RELEASE OF "LET IT GO" CONTAINING THE SONG "IF YOU'RE READING THIS...".
THIS CD IS LISTED AS "LET IT GO (EXTRA TRACKS)", WHICH BY AMAZON DEFINITION MEANS, EXTRA TRACKS ARE BONUS SONGS NOT INCLUDED ON THE STANDARD CD RELEASE. IT IS A INCORRECT LISTING OF THE ITEM. IT IS THE STANDARD RELEASE VERSION.
I RATED IT A 1 STAR, BECAUSE I DID NOT GET THE VERSION LISTED THAT I WANTED, I.E. THE VERSION WITH (EXTRA TRACKS). A AMAZON ERROR, NOT TIM'S FAULT.
AS FAR AS TIM MC GRAW, HE'S ALWAYS A 5 STAR !!!
DON'T BE FOOLED, AS I WAS, REGARDING THE (EXTRA TRACKS VERSION).

I thought this cd was about avergae after my first few listens; yet several months later (and about a million more listens), this cd has really grown on me. Tim's voice has the ability to make the best of avergae material; if you give this cd a few listens, his voice will captivate you and make you fall in love - with him and his songs.

My favorite songs on "Let It Go" are "I'm Working", "Whiskey and You", "Between the River and Me", "Kristofferson" and "Put Your Loving on Me". "Put Your Loving on Me" is my favorite song on this cd as this displays Tim at his best - raw, sexy, and sensual! A must add to you Tim McGraw collection.