is in a strangely nostalgic mood on , its title both a reference to its status as 's fifth studio album and to the numerous car songs scattered across this album. Those car songs aren't mere celebrations of magic machinery; they're infused with nostalgia -- he holds to a very teenage interpretation of the power of the car, meaning that the automobile is the embodiment of freedom, and this isn't his only gaze back to adolescence, either. He's even writing letters back to his 17-year-old self, consoling him that things are gonna turn out OK after all is said and done, which gets to the core of : is happy about how things have turned out but he still can't help but look back just a little wistfully. He may be a little melancholy about his teenage wildlife, but he acknowledges that things don't get any better than this in not one, but two songs -- in where a storybook romance just grows stronger, and where he says the only way the party could improve is if there were a 1,000-gallon keg and and provided a live soundtrack. It's a curious mix of acceptance and regret, but it's appropriate for somebody who is starting to realize that he's settling into his mid-thirties, recognizing that things are changing, sometimes not always in comfortable ways. Case in point: he snipes at Internet nerds sequestered in their basements, lying about themselves on MySpace, in an obvious joke that comes just a bit too close to bullying, but he saves himself with his smarts -- not just verbal (obvious they may be, the jokes are cutting) but musical, as he ends it with a marching band that delivers an aural punch line set up by the words. This isn't the only time that he tells jokes (and that's outside of his traditional cornpone down-home Grand Ole Opry schtick that closes his records): there's the wonderful which has the best pickup line in many a moon, and he pulls off a great musical joke on where he captures a getaway with a torrid instrumental break that slows down into a very funny quote of capped off by a bizarre, unexpected, yet fitting allusion to 's . That fleeting joke, along with and a duet with winner , is one of the clearest indications that is a modern guy, but as always his greatest trick is that he's modern while being proudly traditionalist, never copping to the bombast of , never going for a boot-scooting shuck-and-jive crossover, and never succumbing to the goofy cabal. just lies back and turns out songs that flow naturally, then pumps them up with hot-wired guitar. Even if he's from West Virginia, this is the sound of modern-day and he proves that this lean sound never grows old provided it's executed right and with good songs, which is what always does. This is a form that's flexible -- depending on the attitude, it can sound old, it can sound contemporary, and is both a classicist and a modern guy, at once sounding like his idols but sounding like nobody else in 2007. He distinguishes himself on by deepening his attitude with that longing look back at his own past, which combined with his reliable sharp wit, strong songs, and blazing guitar, gives this album some considerable weight. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine