Moonshine In The Trunk
Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley backs away from social issues and strikes up a party on his 10th studio album, Moonshine in the Trunk. That doesn’t mean he plays it safe.
Musically, Paisley’s arrangements continue to emphasize intricate musicianship and turn-on-a-dime ensemble play, while his lyrics use witty wordplay to explore the many ways people try to escape their problems and improve their lives.
The veteran country star’s knack for tongue-in-cheek fun comes through on the funky River Bank, the fist-pumping Crushin’ It and the high-speed hijinks of the title song. Paisley also touts American pride throughout, whether he’s name-checking sports teams and muscle cars on Country Nation or toasting the land of opportunity on American Flag on the Moon.
As in the past, his ambitious reach sometimes gets the best of him. On the traditional country tune 4WP, Paisley jams the gears by racing through too many musical ideas too quickly.
Still, 15 years into his career, Paisley is the country singer most likely to crack jokes about a hillbilly family getting rich (High Life) or write a sensitive power ballad about a woman breaking through the good-old-boy corporate network (Shattered Glass). Which also makes him the country star most likely to make fans smile — and think.
— Michael McCall
Associated Press
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The Story of Pop Music From Bill Haley to Beyonce
Bob Stanley
The title suggests the folly of the endeavor. Really? The whole story? Yeah, that’s what Bob Stanley is going for here. Doo-wop, the Beatles, folk rock, Philadelphia soul, punk and post-punk, Prince and Madonna, grunge, hip-hop, Britpop and so many points in between. All woven together in a semilinear narrative.
You can laugh if you want. Then you can try putting it down. Opinionated, digressive, quick to play favorites — Stanley, a music journalist who also plays keyboards for the English indie dance band Saint Etienne, loves pop music the way a dog loves its master.
Stanley doesn’t cut a lot of corners; at 556 pages plus bibliography and index, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! could be mistaken for a speaker cabinet. If he’s more insightful on acid house than he is on hip-hop (which he’s actually pretty strong on), he can be forgiven. The book’s pleasures lie in its eccentricities, its wit and its ability to make connections across decades and subgenres. This is a narrative, or rather a series of tributaries, in which the Brill Building succumbs to the Beatles, the sound systems of Jamaica sprout the roots of hip-hop, and Joy Division becomes New Order.
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! is by its very nature incomplete, its ambition impossible to meet. Where’s Nine Inch Nails? Where’s Jay-Z or Nas? To which I hear myself say, shut up and enjoy. Quixotic and kaleidoscopic, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! serves up erudite irreverence on every page.
— Chris Vognar
Dallas Morning News
Mean Streak
Sandra Brown
Dr. Emory Charbonneau, a pediatrician and marathon runner, finds herself trapped in an isolated cabin with a man hiding from the world in Mean Streak, Sandra Brown’s latest dive into romantic suspense.
Although Emory has a tumultuous relationship with her husband, Jeff, they are trying to work things out. She arranges to take a weekend off to head to the mountains to train for a marathon, but they argue before she leaves.
Emory arrives at her destination, spends the night in a hotel and is on the trail the next morning. She receives a massive blow to the head and later wakes up inside a cabin. A man tells Emory that he found her unconscious and brought her to the cabin to administer first aid. When she asks for a phone or transportation, he comes up with excuses to keep her inside and “safe.”
Meanwhile, Jeff begins to wonder about his wife but believes she’s still angry and intentionally staying away from home. When the police begin to question him about her whereabouts and learn that he is having an affair, they start to think he’s responsible for her disappearance.
A quick glance might invoke thoughts of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Stephen King’s Misery, but as Brown unveils the full scope of the story, readers will be shocked and delighted about the direction it takes.
— Jeff Ayers
Associated Press