You can’t accuse Dustin Lynch of doing things by halves. This is the third record of his I’ve reviewed in as many years, and there was a dance remix EP I didn’t bother with somewhere along the way too. One of the busiest men in the business, he’s even found time to become Wynn Nightlife’s first country artist to hold a Las Vegas residency. Presumably he sleeps occasionally.
“Clean Slate”, though, largely finds him doing the things that made him such a big deal in the first place. And when “Made In A Bottle” gets going, you know exactly where you are. There’s a girl. There’s a bar. There’s a clever chorus. Then there’s a guitar solo that could quite happily find employment on a hard rock record.
Welcome to modern country music. Some of us have been telling you how good it is for years.
“Real Fine Reason” has a girl he’s just found rather than one he’s trying to forget, and its easy charm underlines how comfortable Lynch is with this stuff. These songs know where they’re going, and they generally get there in about three minutes.
The acoustics come out for the title track, however, and with them comes a little uncertainty. “Is it too late for this wide-eyed desperado?” he asks, and the question gives the song something to hang onto beyond its immaculate finish. There’s a person taking stock underneath all this polish.
Mind you, he still knows his way around a pop song. “She Don’t Know” is exactly that, delivered with the sort of assurance that makes it sound effortless. You can spend ages debating where country ends and pop begins if you fancy. I’d sooner enjoy the chorus.
And I do love a duet. Ashley Cooke joins him for “How You Been”, as the pair circle an old flame and wonder whether there might still be something left to rekindle. It’s perfectly judged, the two voices making the familiar situation feel believable. Another three-minute chart botherer? Almost certainly. There’s a reason these things work.
There’s an edge here too. “Lightning Don’t” has the energy to back up that point about hard rock, giving the middle of the record a welcome kick. Lynch might make music with enormous commercial appeal, but he understands the value of letting the guitars get their hands dirty.
“Built Us A Life” offers the other side of the picture. Small-town dreams, small-town paradise, and the idea that happiness might be found in the life you build with somebody. Its ambitions are domestic, and that’s precisely its appeal.
“One Tennessee” turns the drinking song into a ballad, giving the heartache room to settle, before “Talkin’” gets back to the business of making pop songs ready to bother the charts. Throughout, the whole thing sounds a million dollars. Lynch co-wrote seven of the songs, and with production shared between Ross Copperman, Zach Crowell and Austin Shawn, there’s plenty of experience involved in making every hook count.
“Old Man Knows” might be my favourite, its reflection offering something that lingers after the immediate pleasures elsewhere. Perhaps that says something about me too. “Easy To Love” follows, weatherworn and unapologetic, before MC4D arrives for “Home To You” and the dancefloor gets its turn. Those Vegas nights were always going to find their way in somewhere.
Dustin Lynch hardly needs my approval. He recently put out a collection of his ten number ones, which is a fairly persuasive response to anyone questioning whether he knows what he’s doing.
More than that, he strikes you as a bloke who enjoys life and enjoys making music. That pleasure comes through here, even when the subject matter gets a little bruised.
If this is a clean slate, he’s soon filled it with the things he does best. Given how good he is at them, you can hardly blame him.
8/10
