CHESNEY, KENNY

With his second album, All I Need to Know, Kenny Chesney began to make inroads onto the charts, a position he consolidated on its 1996 successor, Me and You. While he bears no songwriting credits here, these 11 tracks showcase a more fully rounded Chesney, where the rockers pack more punch and the ballads don't seem quite as big and glossy. For instance, "When I Close My Eyes" is a great soft rock crossover, tuneful and easy but never forced and not dripping with sentiment. Not that he totally avoids sap here, either on the nostalgic hometown tune "Back Where I Come From" or the slow-dance title track, but he's developed into an old pro in spinning this corn convincingly, and when that new trait is balanced by the crackerjack country-rockers that dominate this album -- the opening one-two punch of "Back in My Arms Again" and "Ain't That Love," the superb "(Turn Out the Light And) Love Me Tonight" -- it makes this his most entertaining record to date. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG

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