begins his eponymous album -- the one he delivered a little over a year after , his sprawling major-label debut -- by reciting a poem, a move that suggests that despite his elevation to the upper ranks of country stars, he's still the same old : a singer/songwriter who prizes the cadence of the words more than the sway of melody. Filled with hushed, weary meditations about the ways of this world, generally proves this assertion true. does demand that his audience lean into the songs to discern their meaning; he gives a hint of a hook, enough to coax a second listen to unpack all the sorrows racing around in his head. Over the course of a triple album, this approach gets monochromatic, but is tighter than not only holistically but in its individual parts. The midnight ramblings are sharpened lyrically and melodically to the point that each guest -- , , and , who helped "I Remember Everything" race to number one -- feels welcome. is indeed getting outside of his head here. That said, retains a certain sameness: he's working variations of a grey scale, not painting with a full palette, and the variations on a theme can get a little dull by the end of the proceedings. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine