Dustin Lynch, I'm mad at you.

Ok, I guess I'm more mad at myself. Because I just listened to his entire new album (for the third time now) and I like it. I don't want to, but I like it. A lot.

The self-titled album, Lynch's full-length debut, is full of the kind of music I usually hate. Song after cliche-filled song that's just another version of the "I'm from the sticks and I like to sing about it" that every other country artist is putting out these days.  Something about it is just different, though. I don't know how or why, but these songs are just...good. Really, really good. Good enough for me to not only tolerate when I'm with my country-listening friends, but to even listen to when it's not forced.

I could literally kick myself for knowing the words to a song called "She Cranks My Tractor." (I can just see the judgement on some of your faces as you read that. And I know. It's ok to hate on me for that one, I'm majorly hating myself at the moment, too.) I'm as against songs about big green tractors/plowing the field makes me happy/rain makes mud as one can be. They typically just annoy me. But I just can't hate this one (which actually ends up annoying me even more).

"Waiting" is Lynch's version of the country standby where the girl leaves him, and he realizes too late that he loves her. It's got the usual elements: whiskey, a truck, and a broken, lonely heart. Why is this different, better than the million other songs about the exact same subject?  I don't know, I can't figure out the science behind it. It just has that thing...the same "it" factor that oozes from Lynch himself when he takes the stage. I've seen him twice now, and both times I was incredibly impressed. He has a captivating stage presence that just stays in your head even after you've left the show.

 

 

 "Cowboys and Angels" is all over the radio, and is easily one of my favorite country songs out now, and the perfect first single. I'd say its success will be hard to follow up, but in reality the hardest part of keeping up this momentum will be choosing which of the other 12 songs should be released next to let people fall for.  This album is really that good.

"Hurricane" might be my favorite of the entire album. It's simple. It's pretty. It's not going to change the world, and there's nothing about it individually that's all that earth-shattering. I can't dissect it-- somehow, it just comes together and hits you right in the chest, the heart, the soul. And what else can you really ask from a song? 

If you're a country fan and you haven't heard of Dustin Lynch yet, then save yourself the time and trouble and just buy this album now. Trust me, you're going to want it eventually, if the first single didn't convince you then the next surely will. This boy is going to be huge, go ahead and jump on the bandwagon now.