Kid Rock - 'All Summer Long'
In my more pompous moments, I have been known to claim that this reviewing lark is all about giving every song the chance to win you over. I have been overheard droning on and on about how you can't settle down to listen to a new song preparing to hate every moment, because that's exactly what will end up happening, and that's unfair, not to mention being a rubbish way to spend your working day. My handy explanation for this has always been "if Westlife ever get around to putting out a song which is not rubbish, I want to be sure I don't miss it", but you could just as easily substitute the name of any artist whose work regularly gets dismissed by reviewers, only to go on and sell in magnificent quantities - Nickelback, Snow Patrol, Mika, James Blunt, and especially this fella.
Kid Rock has always seemed to be a uniquely American phenomenon - the Country Music Central blog even refers to him as , which only serves to prove once again just how far apart we are as nations, culturally speaking. Over here, we have tended to be hung up about his lowest-common-denominator one-man-Beastie-Boys rap origins, and let our Stateside cousins get on with it. Until now, that is.
Now we've got The Unrubbish Westlife Moment on our hands, and damn if it don't feel good!
Not that you could ever really fail with a song which uses a fusion of Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves Of London' with Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet 91Èȱ¬ Alabama' as a backbone. Especially not a song which looks back on a mildly mis-spent youth with warmth and affection, and is sung in a leathery, time-word old voice.
It's interesting that we, as a nation, tend to be more impressed by people who drop the "I AM BRILLIANT!" act and reveal a more human side. Think about Nickelback, and how their biggest hit was the one which displayed a previously well-hidden sense of humour. Or Mariah Carey making videos which send up her image as a massive diva.
But at the end of the day, a good song is a good song. And this is two good songs from the past, stuck together with another good song on the top. What's not to like?
Download: Out now
CD Released: July 14th
(Fraser McAlpine)
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