Buffet goes country on ‘License to Chill’
Jimmy Buffett
“License to Chill” (Mailboat/RCA) ••• 1/2 stars
It’s been no secret among Parrotheads that Jimmy Buffett’s last batch of albums — “Banana Wind,” “Beach House on the Moon,” “Far Side of the World” — have been well-crafted but interchangeable and, ultimately, forgettable.
It also hasn’t gone unnoticed that Buffett has had a profound influence on today’s country stars, some of whom (especially Kenny Chesney) copy his sound and look. His collaboration last year with Alan Jackson, the rousing “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” won Buffett his first No. 1 single (albeit on the country chart).
Backstage at the Country Music Association Awards last year, he chatted up today’s top country stars — Jackson, Toby Keith, George Strait, Martina McBride, Clint Black and Chesney — and suggested that they head to his Key West studio to record with him.
The result is the wholly engaging “License to Chill,” which debuted this week at the top of both Billboard’s pop and country album charts.
The CD was preceded by the single “Hey Good Lookin’, ” a Hank Williams remake done “Margaritaville”-style that amounts to stunt casting since Black, Chesney, Jackson, Keith and Strait all swap lines with Buffett.
“Am I country, pop or rock ‘n’ roll?” Buffett sings on this return-to-roots CD. “I know they are related/So I’ll just let you be the judge/It’s simply complicated.”
Nothing complicated about enjoying this disc. How about a Volume II?
— Howard Cohen, Miami Herald
Lloyd Banks
“The Hunger for More” (G Unit/Interscope) •• 1/2
The title says it all: more gorgeously produced beats, more well-groomed lyrical flow and more of the same money-in-the-bank gangsta crud slicked up in a new wrapper guaranteed to sell.
One-third of the infamous G-Unit, Banks has a delivery more low-toned and deceptively mellow than his partners 50 Cent and Tony Yayo. Though not one of the songs on the album stands out in terms of head-popping new production, each cut is utterly bulletproof.
“Die One Day” contains a sweet guitar sample and high-funk vocal that recalls the best of Funkadelic, and there are shining moments with Eminem on “Warrior Part 2” and with Snoop Dogg on “I Get High.”
This is maintenance music for Gs looking for the newest that isn’t going to upset their delicate and dangerous palates.
— Dean Kuipers, Los Angeles Times