Kid Rock Soul Stirs Early and Often

Nobody could ever accuse Kid Rock of being a shrinking flower. You know you're entering a no bullshit zone when he's around. The full measure of his talents in just about every contemporary vein imaginable erupts from every corner of "Rebel Soul". It's already cracked the Billboard Album Chart's Top 5, and with pretty damn good reason. He and his band bring the party straight to your front door, daring you to somehow turn them away. There's pelvic sexuality galore on "3 CATT Boogie". This clapalong rhythm is inescapable. Trust me when I say you wouldn't want to. The grinding gets better by the second. Meanwhile Kid lays the lumber to some of his American discontent. There's the preacher reaching for his Old Testament. Banks hedging their bets on the next generation's chances of doing anything other than sliding by. Wall Street orchestrating the whole travesty. Put his delivery and his band's superior mettle together and what you've got is a breathtaking peek into Kid Rock's rock hemisphere. The Kid respects both his music elders and innovation driven contemporaries. "Detroit, Michigan" salutes every home slice made good from Aretha Franklin to Marvin Gaye to Eminem, the real Slim Shady himself. What leads up to this outpouring of Motown based love is a friendly bit of audio applause for other regions of the country and what they have to offer the listening universe. Memphis has its soul. N.Y.C. can lay claim to an uptown sound. Mississippi knows how to sing the blues. In the end they don't hold a candle to the Motor City and the various bright lights of music past, present, and foreseeable future which still shine bright today. Sweaty, jazzy, shout out ditty worth raising a glass to, even if you're rockin' heart belongs to some other section of the country. The only prominent misstep I could find here was "The Mirror". Somewhat of a comedown on the heels of several cuts where Kid's the ringleader for a nonstop celebration. Why drop in a payload of buzzkill, served up in the key of AutoTune, stale jack swing lawn furniture plastic when there was momentum to burn right before that? Nothing wrong with spreading your ambition far enough to please as many camps as possible. In the end trying to overreach serves no beneficial purpose. That's as inadvisable as the multitasking we all do in contemporary society. Problem is we still aren't willing to accept the notion that not many people multitask well, managing to be unflinching jacks of all trades. Now then...back to some other noteworthy tricks from Kid's magic hat. "God Save Rock 'n' Roll" is the best rags to riches back to rags story of one clueless youth's journey to the epicenter of the successful rock 'n' roll lifestyle since Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Into The Great Wide Open". I'd say that's some pretty nice company to be in. Honky tonk roots. Jimmie "Bones" Trombly wailing away on the piano. Where Tom's interpretation was somewhat sympathetic, Kid Rock pulls no punches about how this doofus deserved the trip back down to Earth for deciding his soul was definitely for sale. Kid hasn't exactly shed his gutter trash persona. Check out "Cucci Galore". That's one bedrock altering orgasm unfurling. This brings to mind the awesome "Bawitaba". Back in 1999 it thrust itself through car radios like a megaton bomb which had just had the pin pulled. The tawdry tale drives itself deeper and deeper into the erogenous zone until the best surgeon couldn't pull it back out. Not one band member holds back on his/her zest for the project before them. Jimmie's harmonica glides like a freshly waxed hydroplane. David McMurray's applied copious layers of smoothness on sax. Shannon Curfman, Jessica Cowan-Wagner, and Stefanie Eulinberg were no bit players responsible for making "Detroit, Michigan" the solid tribute it proved to be. "Rebel Soul" is that Fourth of July fireworks display people circle on the calendar every year as must listen entertainment. Effort still counts in the rock 'n' roll galaxy. Kid and his band Twisted Brown Trucker left phone it in on the side of the road and then proceeded to leave muddy tire tracks on it.