Luke Bryan, ‘Kill the Lights’
LUKE BRYAN
Kill the Lights COUNTRY
DOWNLOAD Home Alone Tonight, Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day, Scarecrows
If you really want to get acquainted with Luke Bryan through his music, start listening to his albums at Track 6.
The hits — at least the obvious ones like Kick the Dust Up, which Bryan’s using to open the shows on his summer tour — are up front on Kill the Lights. There’s nothing wrong with that: Bryan and producers Jeff and Jody Stevens know their way to the top of the country charts as well as anybody. But those songs reinforce the notion of Bryan as the life of country music’s neverending party, a role he gladly plays but one that locks him into a stereotype.
Start with Move, though, and Kill the Lights tells a different story. It’s a coming-of-age tale told from the other side of life, when “60 seconds now feels more like 30” and “you try to make the good times last as long as you can.” Suddenly, the urgency in those party songs, heard toward the end rather than at the beginning, takes on new context.
The variety in the album’s second half reveals the Bryan that the people who know him appreciate:
Love It Gone, which taps into his affection for early ’80s country; Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day, which pretty much sums up his life philosophy and places him squarely in the musical lineage of Alabama and Hank Williams Jr.; and Scarecrows, a graceful vignette of rural life. If you want to go really deep, splurge for the Target-exclusive deluxe edition, which includes an old-fashioned tearjerker called Little Boys Grow Up and Dogs Get Old.
All this isn’t to say the first five tracks don’t contain strong material. Payback-pic revenge fantasy Home Alone Tonight, a duet with Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town, is a surefire smash. Strip It Down finds Bryan in a more intimate mode, a role he rarely assumes in his songs.
If Bryan’s your go-to party guy, start listening to Kill the Lights from the top, by all means. But it’s that second half, once the radio songs and vocal-event pairings have been accounted for, where Bryan gets to stretch out and really be Bryan. The hits are fine, but that’s the guy who’s really worth getting to know.