REVIEW: KEITH URBAN - 'GET CLOSER'

Country stud Keith Urban returns with his new album ‘Get Closer’, the follow- up to his platinum album ‘Defying Gravity’, which earned the singer his third Grammy Award for ‘Best Male Country Vocal Performance’.

Of his seventh disc, he says “Most of the songs on this record are about a couple, and of course, I draw a lot from my own marriage for some of these songs”.

SUMMARY ANALYSIS

The project’s first single “Put You In A Love Song”, which has thus far peaked at No.13 on the Billboard Country Charts, kicks off the set as he compares being in love to listen to his favorite song on the radio.

Co-written by the crooner with Sarah Buxton and Jedd Hughes, the track enlists his signature route of catchy melodies, while also simultaneously and unknowingly setting the pace for the upcoming stories of love.

This is definitely a trend that transitions well throughout the album’s eight tracks including the lovely “Without You” and the album’s standout “All For You”, which are undoubtedly odes to his actress wife Nicole Kidman.

On the latter, Urban turns in one of his most heartfelt vocal performances as he coons “I can’t remember feeling love like this, I’m so alive”, before he trails into “day after day, you find a way to make this grown man cry”.

One of the problems that surface within the disc, besides the monogamous subject matter, is the inability of some of his efforts to find their own place and distinguish themselves from things that he has done in the past.

The lead single and the extremely solid “Long Hot Summer” are two examples that become a victim at trying to rehash the material of his past.

Fortunately, he returns to higher grounds on mesmerizing cuts, such as, “You Gonna Fly” and “Georgia Woods”, while “Right On Back to You” and the closer “Shut Out the Lights” provide two more solid entries.

FINAL VERDICT

On ‘Get Closer’, his seventh studio album, Keith Urban refuses to deviate away from the sound that made him a superstar, and while that garnishes worthy results, it also makes the beauty of challenge and growth appear obscure.

As one of the most talented men in country, one can only hope he breaks free from the bounds of musical contentment, but as of now, the album plays like a beautiful love letter filled with heart and as an audience, we’re content with that.

3½ OUT OF 5

CELEBRITY BUG’S KEY TRACKS
“You Gonna Fly”, “All For You”, “Without You” and “Georgia Woods”.