Eric Church has been walking a fine line between country artist and country moneymaker since his 2006 debut album, “Sinners Like Me.” His records are characterized by their inconsistency in song quality, but he uses his fourth studio album, “The Outsiders,” as a mouthpiece to spout off on the ingenuity of Nashville and his efforts to rise above it.

The album begins with “The Outsiders,” a Southern rock track featuring his signature North Carolina drawl that sometimes turns into a snarl. Church isn’t afraid to get down and dirty with his vocal delivery, which is appropriate, considering a major theme of the album is that he’s a country rebel.

The music on “The Outsiders” toes the line between commercial and something a lot more interesting. The track is pretty much straightforward Southern rock until the end, when a metal influence sweeps in before the song surges into a blues rock guitar solo that would make Pearl Jam fans smile.

Mainstream country, Southern rock, metal and blues. It may seem like too much to process for one four-minute song, but it makes perfect sense behind Church’s dynamic voice.

That variety persists throughout the album, adding Dixieland jazz, spoken word poetry and even hip-hop (though nothing as overt as a Nelly cameo) to the mix.

“Cold One” features a steel guitar and sounds like something a group of New Orleans boys would play on their front porch. It shifts into double time with lightning fast guitar solos and even a trombone when it slows back down. It’s updated mountain music that shows Church’s sincerity as a country artist, not a pop star singing over some banjos.

As if the music wasn’t enough to speak for itself, Church talks up his rock ’n’ roll cred on “That’s Damn Rock & Roll,” where he sings, “It ain’t a middle finger on a T-shirt the establishment’s tryin’ to sell, it’s a guy with the balls who told the establishment to go to hell. It ain’t about the money you make when a record gets sold, it’s about doin’ it for nothin’ ‘cause it lives in your soul.”

Unfortunately, Church is all too aware of the business side of the music industry. It’s obvious from tracks like “Talladega” and “Give Me Back My Hometown” that Church is out to sell albums — either because he wants to or because he wants to hold onto his record deal.

These two tracks in particular are throwaway radio single gold (“Give Me Back My Hometown” actually was released as the second single in January), but anyone could have performed them. There’s no personality, no indication that Church is the artist, aside from his distinct voice.

Church calls out the music industry best on “Devil, Devil (Prelude: Princess of Darkness),” an 8-minute long journey through spoken word poetry that personifies Nashville as a sexy but dangerous woman.

Church explains that Nashville will make or break an artist, but “it all comes down to money. Not romantic art of days gone past. If you forget that rule, you can bet your backside she will bury it in your ass.”

It’s an interesting dilemma he’s facing. He puts out singles that will sell albums, but he sneaks in unusual music and lyrics about the dark side of a big record deal, as if to apologize for and explain away the filler on the album. He’d likely never admit to padding his CDs with singles, but it’s hard not to believe that’s what’s happening when “The Outsiders” features a handful of great, genuine country songs as well as a handful of generic radio hits.

It’s also a dilemma for the listener, the lover of pure country music. He sings about having the balls to stand up to the establishment, but there’s such a clear distinction between his singles (boring) and the rest of his songs (exciting) that it’s pretty clear he’s not standing up as tall as he could. His only other options, though, are to get out of his contract and release music independently or just churn out albums that aren’t compelling at all.

It’s hard to blame him for toeing that line between artist and moneymaker, and in all it’s not a total tragedy. “The Outsiders” is a pretty solid, varied country album with some filler. That’s no crime. But it would be nice if one day Church had it in him to leave the big music business of Nashville behind and truly let himself loose.

 

Published on February 17, 2014 at 11:35 pm

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