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Brooks & Dunn Album: “Tight Rope”
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Release Date:1999-09-14
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Type:Unknown
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Genre:Country
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Label:Arista
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Explicit Lyrics:No
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UPC:078221889520
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Review - AMG :
Seven is a lucky number for Brooks & Dunn. The seven-time winners of duo awards from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music have bestowed on listeners their seventh album (including The Greatest Hits Collection.) As always, 12 of Tight Rope's 13 songs were written by the duo (six by Kix and six by Ronnie), but what adds to the mix this time is the addition of producer Byron Gallimore (Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Jodee Messina), who has stirred things up a bit with a more progressive, technical edge and new-sounding instrumentation to some of the songs. And love is the predominant theme of this album with the longing lyrics of "Goin' Under Gettin' Over You, the sorrowful "Too Far This Time," and the can't-go-wrong re-release of John Waite's 1984 "Missing You." ~ Maria Konicki Dinoia, All Music GuideReview - Yahoo! Music - Billy Altman :
For their sixth album, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn have taken an interesting approach: Dunn's lead-vocaled tracks were co-produced by Byron Gallimore (Faith Hill, Tim McGraw), while longtime producer Don Cook worked on all the Brooks-penned cuts. While the results play to the duo's respective strengths--Dunn's high-energy songs have a brighter, higher-teched sound, while Brooks's reflect his more introspective approach--it does make for a somewhat dual-identitied vibe.Most likely, the songs here will (like previous Brooks & Dunn efforts) sound better in isolated radio contect, and there are likely hits in Dunn's "Hurt Train," Brooks's "The Trouble With Angels" and a fine "My Maria"-veined cover of pop-rocker John Waite's old '80s hit, "Missing You." Review - :
{$Brooks & Dunn} have always seemed more traditionalist than they actually were. Even with their first album, they had a clear commercial mind behind their rootsiest material, and it's undeniable that they were not only one of the driving forces behind the line-dance craze, but that they had some of the better mainstream country ballads of the decade. Their trick was not just strong vocals, but keeping the music lean and direct, so it sounded like straight-up country even when it had pop aspirations. They retained that illusion up until the end of the '90s, when they not only increased their pop quotient, but they started to feel like a collective instead of a duo. That's a roundabout way of saying that 1999's {^Tight Rope}, while a solid album, isn't quite up to their old standards. For instance, such blatant radio crossover moves as covering {$John Waite}'s New Wave-era classic {&"Missing You"} feels wrong, even if it's done as well as it possibly could be. That's obviously a misstep, but the really strange thing about {^Tight Rope} is how the alternation between a {$Brooks} song and {$Dunn} song feels like two solo albums pieced together, which is something that's never happened before. That these pieces are musically in line with the duo's previous efforts only hammers home the fact that this record is competent, occasionally enjoyable, but not particularly inspired. Parts of the record work quite well, such as {&"Temptation #9"} or the closer {&"Texas and Norma Jean,"} but there are large stretches that either feel contrived or a little too generic. Since {$Brooks & Dunn} are professionals, {^Tight Rope} is always listenable, but the combination of bland material and the disjointed feeling of the record leaves it a little unsatisfying. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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