JASON ALDEAN

9 BROKEN BOW 4/10

Nashville megastar persists with profitable formula

Jason Aldean is not the first to have named his ninth album “9”: Public Image Ltd did it back in 1989. There, however, similarities between Aldean and PIL end. 9 evinces little inclination to dispense with the template that has borne Aldean to umpty-platinum status. As ever, there’s a vexing sense that beneath the big-hatted bluster, there’s a fine old-school country record struggling for breath. Opening track “Tattoos & Tequila” is emblematic – a neatly wry lyrical conceit (“Tattoos to remember/ Tequilas to forget”) deluged by the high-octane hokum of mainstream country radio production. Not for the last time on 9, what could have been a decent George Jones-ish ballad is reduced to a series of cues for stagefront pyrotechnics.