Eric Church The Outsiders ½ out of five

country • Perhaps it’s a testament to how desperately Nashville needs some shaking up, but the fact that Eric Church is routinely seen as a provocative force in country music has always been a little confusing. Granted, he’s had a lot of help from the media shaping this narrative and it’s likely the stadium-filling, Springsteen-loving, gun-shooting North Carolinian will find even more converts to shape this myth with his ambitious fourth album. But make no mistake about it, Church is more Kid Rock than Merle Haggard. Once you understand this, The Outsiders can be mild fun to listen to. In the very least, the playing and production ensure it’s rarely boring. Whether it be the prog-metal outro of the goofy title song, the bluesy swagger of Broke Record, the slinky faux-soul of Like a Wrecking Ball or warbling trombone fills in The Joint, Church knows how to throw musical curveballs into the mix.

But underneath all this, the songs are painfully pedestrian. A real provocateur would probably never write a line such as “Since you have been gone, I’ve been on a roller-coaster ride. Up and down I goooooo …” A real provocateur would probably never name a song That’s Damn Rock & Roll. A real provocateur doesn’t need to constantly write lyrics reminding us what a badass he is.

In the end, Church spends too much of The Outsiders making a spectacle of how audaciously he can colour outside of Nashville’s lines and not enough delivering memorable songs.