Search - Blake Shelton :: All About Tonight

'All About Tonight' [REVIEW]

Antoine D. Reid | Durham, NC United States | 08/10/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Blake Shelton's back with another "6-pack" album. This is basically an EP, a short album that's a few songs short of being considered a real album. Shelton's switched to this format so that he can release music more frequently than once every two years and so that his music in return becomes a bit more affordable for his fans. Shelton's first 6-pack album Hillbilly Bone was released back in March of this year. It was okay. Decent. It had one or two good tracks and the rest was unfortunately pretty forgettable. How does "All About Tonight" compare?



The Good: Musically, it feels completely unrelated to "Hillbilly Bone". "All About Tonight" ditches the interludes (for the most part) that plagued the previous mini album. This album, however, at leas feels like the tracks were chosen to give it a carefree, party, light feel. It's much more cohesive with a better sound and production value than "Hillbilly Bone" that felt a bit unfocused. The theme that pulls all of the tracks together is love. You can tell that Shelton was inspired by his relationship with Miranda Lambert more so on this release and with these songs than with the past albums. Some of the stand-out tracks are "Suffocating" where for the first time in a while, Shelton put aside his jokes and sarcasm and showed genuine emotion and heart. It was reminiscent of his old hit "Austin" and something I hope he does more of in the future. Also, "Draggin' The River" featuring Miranda Lambert (his fiance) is a nice love duet but isn't at all sappy. If you know anything about these two artists you know they are all about making you laugh more than they are about pulling at your heart strings.



The Bad: The interlude injected into the last two tracks did take away from the overall album production just a bit. I'm not sure if this EP/mini album format truly fits Shelton. The overall album feels a bit rushed and even though we're treated to more music from him throughout the year, it still feels as if a lot of the music we've gotten thus far (between this release and the release of "Hillbilly Bone") have been packed with filler tracks with the exception of one or two. With this format, we really should have 6 single-worthy tracks that are all stellar and worth purchasing. Instead we have a lot of "ok" and average bits of music with only a few that feel worth purchasing.



In all, I felt "All About Tonight" was more country than "Hillbilly Bone". It's more consistent, the songs are a bit better produced and overall it's a light, carefree listening experience. If there's a theme to the songs it's love - you can tell that Shelton was inspired by his relationship with Miranda Lambert more so on this release and with these songs than with the past albums.



Listen to These: "Suffocating", "That Thing We Do", "Draggin' the River (feat. Miranda Lambert)""