Jason Aldean - GEORGIA (2022) [Hi-Res]

The companion to 2021's Macon (as in his hometown), Jason Aldean's tribute to his home state—and there's plenty of personalized nostalgia that does what country music does at its best: feel universal, even when you've never lived anything like it. Aldean is a master at writing and choosing songs that encapsulate a cinematic version of what people expect from a country song. "Whiskey Me Away" finds him chasing away his loneliness with a stranger in a "long-lost highway town" bar, throwing quarters in a jukebox to "play some old-school Alabama." He remembers past summers with a preacher's daughter on "Holy Water," commemorating her airbrushed T-shirt and bumper-car rides (bonus points for rhyming "heaven" and "Destin," as in the budget-Spring-Break Florida town). "Your Mama" is as sentimental as all get-out, sung from the POV of a dad to a newborn: "The one that brought you in the world/ You'll always be her baby," he sings of the woman of the title. "The one who makes it all OK/ When everything goes crazy." Call it country music comfort food. On "The State I'm In," he's (happily) outrunning a breakup: from an Alabama beach to Bourbon Street, finding a high in Colorado and putting it all on black in Nevada. The song's got a big, catchy chorus that drops away before kicking back in at the bridge—yes, it is formulaic, but sometimes that feels good. Aldean is the king of midtempo, and there aren't really any surprises here. He's always loved an '80s-inspired power-ballad chorus, and that's delivered on "Rock and Roll Cowboy," along with a light trap beat and lonesome drifter of a lead guitar. He has said that the single "Trouble With a Heartbreak" reminds him of "those bitter R&B breakup songs that take me back to riding through the backroads of Georgia." It'll remind you of, well, a Jason Aldean song. There are R&B inflections, too, on "Midnight and Missin' You"—which also sports searing-hot guitar and big, '80s rock drums—and "Ain't Enough Cowboy," filtered through the heavy Auto-Tune that feels passé in country now. Perhaps the freshest-sounding tune is also the most traditional: "My Weakness" is feisty with wailing steel guitar and Miranda Lambert-style sass. If the record doesn't feel familiar enough, it's back-loaded with live versions of old fan favorites—including snarler "Take a Little Ride" and chart-toppers "Rearview Town" and "Burnin' It Down"—that make a great advertisement for buying a concert ticket. ©Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz