Artist: Tim McGraw
Album: Two Lanes of Freedom
Label: Big Machine Records
Rating: 4/5
Review by: Henry Lees
Lean, refreshed, fighting fit and full of vigour, Tim McGraw returns to the airwaves and your digital playlist with a taut and satisfying 12th studio album, Two Lanes of Freedom. Not that McGraw ever really left the public consciousness, he just seemed to languish for a little while during a long and protracted legal battle to win his own freedom from long time label Curb Records. Now, McGraw sounds like he took a big, deep cleansing breath before diving into the studio for his first effort for new label Big Machine Records, and the tracks brim and crackle with the energy of renewed spirit.
While Two Lanes of Freedom doesn’t contain such career-defining greats as “Live Like You Were Dying”, “Don’t Take the Girl” and McGraw’s double platinum duet with wife Faith Hill, “It’s Your Love”, there’s plenty of chart-climbing fodder in this line up. The album is bookended by two paeans to the open road that practically beg you to get behind the wheel and reach for the power window button. Thundering drums and cinematic back up vocals propel the album’s title track (Jaren Johnston, Jen Schott) into hooking you along for the whole journey.
“God made old country roads for driving and dreaming, Mine’s coming true girl here with you on two lanes of freedom.”
The album ender features the inevitable but intriguing collaboration between McGraw and new label mate Taylor Swift, “Highway Don’t Care” (Mark Irwin/Josh Kear/Brad Warren/Brett Warren). Also showcasing some blazing guitar work from Keith Urban, the song brings everything full circle on the album, with Swift’s sweet interjections of “I can’t live without you, baby” providing an bouyant counterpoint to McGraw’s hopeful pleas for his love to come back home.
In between the expansive album opener and closer are more highlights grounded in great songwriting and McGraw’s one-of-a-kind delivery. “Friend of a Friend” (Andrew Dorff/Mark Irwin/Josh Kear) finds the singer vulnerably yearning for a far away, lost love. “Southern Girl” (Rodney Clawson/Jaren Johnston/Lee Thomas Miller) is a vibe-y, travelogue tribute to the perfect woman complete with an auto-tuned sounding, post chorus that works here when it might be cheesy somewhere else. “Nashville Without You” (Kyle Jacobs/Ruston Kelly/Joe Leathers) deftly winds its numerous legendary country hit mentions into a clever, loving personal compliment. The most poignant moment in the collection comes when the “Book of John” (Greg Becker/John Nite) is opened not to reveal biblical verse but, mementos that tell the story of a beloved, deceased father’s life. The song doesn’t reveal its hand until the end of the first verse with touching impact.
The one, big spin out on Two Lanes of Freedom is the lead single, “Truck Yeah” (Preston Brust/Chris Janson/Chris Lucas/Danny Myrick). From name checking Li’l Wayne to hangin’ with the crew at the honky tonk, It’s an overly self-conscious, rebel yell of a song that bombastically beats its chest too hard.
“Truck, yeah! Wanna get it jacked up, yeah! Crank it on up, yeah!..and if you think this life I live is a little too country. You’re right on the money. Truck yeah!”
Undoubtedly, it will get many a fist pumping during McGraw’s upcoming Two Lanes of Freedom Tour, but it feels too calculated amongst this set. It was a gold selling single but, notably, “Truck Yeah” stalled short of the top ten in the U.S.
When it comes to producing his albums, McGraw is definitely from the don’t-fix-what-ain’t-broke school of thought. The formidable Byron Gallimore was once again in the co-producer’s chair for Two Lanes – as he has been for all twelve of McGraw’s studio albums – providing a sure sonic hand and a continuity only found in long time, creative relationships. Pleasant sound and production choices abound from the bold, beautiful gospel background vocals in the current top ten single “One of Those Nights” (Rodney Clawson/Luke Laird/Chris Tompkins), to Mike Rojas’ playful accordion flourishes on the cheerful, stoned-in-paradise romp “Mexicoma” (James Slater/Brad Warren/Brett Warren).
Vegas house gig aside, Tim McGraw’s twelfth studio album since 1993 proves he’s still aiming for new horizons. With Two Lanes of Freedom, the man who took over Garth Brooks’ mantle as the biggest male superstar in country shows he’s not ready to pass it along any time soon.
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