Kane Brown
bookends
Different Man
with "Bury Me in Georgia" and "Dear Georgia," two deliberate odes to his home state that are hardly the only sentimental tunes on his third album.
Brown
has been in the business of opening his heart since his eponymous 2016 debut, but where that record hinted at deeper, complex emotions, the singer operates on a grander scale on
, a record released in 2022 when
is unquestionably one of the biggest stars in country music. The album functions as a convincing argument that
earned his fame by blending country tradition with the fluid genre-bending of the streaming age. It's often easy to hear
's country roots. He sings with a pronounced twang, he tips his hat to
Alan Jackson
on "Like I Love Country Music" -- a song whose very title is a salute to his chosen genre -- and he sings about love, alcohol, home, and family in equal measure. Reduced to its basics,
seems like an old-fashioned country album but it plays like smooth, slick pop as it slides from the gleaming melodies of "See You Like I Do" to the mellow "Thank God," a duet with his wife
Katelyn Brown
. When the tempo and volume increase, as they do on "One Mississippi," it's with the insistence of a rocking country throwback, only given a digital polish that makes the track a canny hybrid of old and new sounds. If
only synthesized the past and present on
, it'd have a distinct pulse, but he also glides through a number of different styles ranging from the beach-ready breezes of "Drunk or Dreamin'" and the stark, spartan ballad "Whiskey Sour" to the '80s throwback vibes of "Nothin' I'd Change." By dabbling in all these styles,
gives the distinct impression he's attempting to please all the people all of the time, an eagerness that can get slightly wearying on an album that, at 17 tracks, feels longer than its hour but is quite endearing when heard in doses. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine