In the Ranch
Australian-born Keith Urban is a masterful guitarist and halfway decent singer who has enthusiastically lived up to his surname by embracing contemporary country's more urbane fashions. This album marks his return to the Ranch, the trio with whom he first made his name, and is front-loaded with jingly radio fodder. Cliché-ridden tunes like "Walkin' the Country," "Homespun Love," and "Hank Don't Fail Me Now" simply don't have much emotional currency beneath the hot licks and too-clever wordplay. But when Urban and his sidekicks delve into the warm, fuzzy underbelly of '70s country-rock on tortured, young-and-restless ballads like "Tangled Up in Love," "Desiree," and "Man of the House," they hit a fine groove and manage to sound pretty convincing.--Bob Allen