6.5/10
Liberals hate Toby Keith. To them, he’s a personification of everything that is wrong with America; an ignorant, white Southerner, singing songs that are racist, ethnocentric, or just downright idiotic. It all started in 2002 when he released a response to the 9/11 attacks entitled “Courtesy of The Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American).” The song itself was generally your standard country fare, but it had one lyric, “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way,” that enraged left-wingers everywhere. Who was this inbred hick to tell us what the American way was? How dare he assert that violence was what America stood for? The damage was already done, but in 2003 he made it worse. He released an album entitled Shock’n Ya’ll” (yeah, I just threw up a bit, too), which included yet another pro-war track, “The Taliban Song,” along with the somewhat misogynistic “Whiskey Girl.” At this point, he was public enemy #1 in blue states everywhere.
Over the years, Toby’s really left that type of songwriting behind him. 2005’s Honkytonk U and 2006’s White Trash With Money were relatively apolitical, and 2007’s Big Dog Daddy included “Love Me If You Can,” in which he attempted to explain in a friendly manner why he wrote songs like “Courtesy.” It was almost as if he were apologizing to all those pissed off liberals. Now, with That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy, he takes an even further left turn, going from the Angry American to Mr. Sensitive. There’re no politics, and half the songs are about dissolved relationships. Come to think of it, a lot of these songs are kind of wimpy. Not as wimpy as say, Rascal Flatts, but far from the tough guy material he’s been releasing over the past 15 years. The change ends up working for the better, as the mellow, depressed Toby Keith beats the angry, war-mongering one any day of the week, bringing along one of the strongest efforts of his career.
The album gets off to a nice, upbeat start with the title track, in which he explains that despite his indiscretions, he’s really an okay guy. That could actually represent the message he is trying to display with this album. He wants to say that he’s not the pompous right-wing jerk we all think he is. He’s really just an average guy (with a shitload of money) who goes through the same struggles all we do. I’m not sure how accurate this portrayal is, but the song is quite catchy. Following that, it’s “Creole Woman,” a decent Cajun-flavored number, which, while nothing special, does manage to rock out nicely.
But then the album takes a huge turn, with one mushy ballad after another. Lead single “She Never Cried In Front of Me” is quite possibly the saddest song Keith has ever recorded. It’s about a guy whose ex-wife is getting remarried, and he feels like shit because he never knew how miserable she was because she never cried. This message is fairly unoriginal, and sort of makes the protagonist seem like a blowhard (why not just talk to her?), but the song is very well done, and Keith’s male fan-base will have no problem relating. The song is currently #1 on the country charts, as it is what country music fans love best - lonely guys singing about regrets.
The mushiness doesn’t stop there. In “Lost Her Anyway,” Keith states that his relationship was doomed from the start. He adopts a rather brooding tone, dropping his fun-loving guy persona in favor of a darker character. He sounds genuinely depressed here, like his relationship was hopeless. Later on, however, he cheers up with “God Love Her,” which will be the second single. This song is one of the more boring ones, as it’s really just generic modern country. The thing that makes it stands out is just how shocking it is to hear Keith sing such a sweet, simple love song. There’s no conflict here, no longing, no anger, just, “isn’t she sweet.” Keith has abandoned his status as country’s angry man in favor of being just another purveyor of sappy love songs. It’s quite a surprising transition.
The reason I don’t tear this album to bits for its schmaltziness is because it turns out that Toby Keith is really good at this stuff. Almost all of these songs have some redeeming qualities, and they tend to be very catchy. Other than a few bland, forgettable tracks, the majority of songs on That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy will stay with you after just one listen. I’d love to preach to the choir and tell you that Toby Keith made another shitty album full of flag-waving crap, but that’s just not the case. He’s turned a new leaf, and it works out for the better. This is not a great album, but it is a solid and consistent one, and it’s safe to say that no matter how liberal you are, it will not offend your sensibilities. Put it this way: you don’t have to sleep with a relative to enjoy this album, but it wouldn’t hurt.
