CD Reviews

By: North County Times - | Wednesday, November 23, 2005 7:24 AM PST ∞

B- "Comin' to Your City"

Big & Rich

Warner Bros.

In the title song of their second album, "Comin' to Your City," Big & Rich vow to "play our guitars and sing you a country song" when they visit. Sure they will, along with funk, hard rock and rapping. Big Kenny Alphin and John Rich are a radical force in Nashville because they ignore the style restrictions and proprieties of standard country, aiming for their own good-time populism. In "Caught Up in the Moment" they rap over slide guitars about sex on an airplane; "Filthy Rich" is a honky-tonk tune about greedy corporate executives and TV preachers.

As with crunk rappers, they have songs about drinking and hell-raising. The party is more frenetic and brittle than it was on Big & Rich's 2-million-selling 2004 debut album, "Horse of a Different Color," although they haven't come up with another slogan-title to match "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)." The arrangements brandish country instruments in unlikely places, mixing Aerosmith with steel guitar in "Jalapeno" and adding mandolin to psychedelia in "Blow My Mind."

Between novelties, Big & Rich are still Nashville pros offering such craftsmanlike weepers as "Never Mind Me," "Slow Motion" and "I Pray for You." Their wildness has limits: "20 Margaritas" warns against drunken driving. And they have exchanged the religious streak of their debut for patriotism, ending this album with a tribute to a Vietnam veteran (who gets commemoratively drunk) and a countrified "Star-Spangled Banner." But they're a lot more fun when they're gimmicky.

---- JP

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