Twentieth Century [ENHANCED CD]
Ironically, being displaced from the bestseller lists byGarthandShaniahas given these veteran mainstream hit-makers a new creative lease on life. While playing to a smaller, postmultiplatinum niche, they have made some of the best and most adventurous music of their two-decade career. Mind you, there's little that Alabama do that somebody somewhere doesn't do better. This is true of lead singer Randy Owen's masterful but often overly sentimental balladeering and of vocalist-guitarist Jeff Cook's frequent forays into R&B-leaning; beach music, represented here by the punchy, full-blown Muscle Shoals-style horn arrangement of the original "Mist of Desire." That said, Alabama's best efforts display an earnestness, charm, and wry down-homegravitas, and there's quite a bit of their best here. The heartbroken "Write It Down in Blue" and the hopeful blue-collar testimonial "Small Stuff" are both first rate. Ditto for the title tune, which is the best goodbye to the century heard yet.--Bob Allen