Customer Reviews

Try Again

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Country music is sometimes clever, and these days a little too often sappy or shallow. Thank God for Mike Ireland, who reminds us that there's such a thing as intelligent country.

Not that anyone who actually knows the genre ever doubted it. But I've come to think that Mike Ireland is in a class by himself on this score. What he does really is country; he's no poser. And it's not "intellectual" or "cerebral" or any other such BS, let alone maudlin, sappy or pandering. But it's clear-headed, thoughtful, and wonderfully well-wrought.

This is a _really_ good album. It is so much better than most of what you hear on country radio that music row ought to hang its head in shame. There's nothing here that hits you over the head; it's _all_ good, and good in ways that don't necessarily make themselves plain until you've listened a few times.

Mike Ireland's last album didn't sell all that well, which, for anyone who needed to know, proves that the world isn't just. But this one could be different. All you need to do is buy it. And listen. And tell all your friends.

Even better than his debut album, this is one of the best country albums in years. No one has ever done countrypolitan better.