Kid Rock Pours Out a Thunderous Slab of Rock With "First Kiss"

Oh...Lordy...be. Kid Rock's unloaded the most melodic accessible pedal to the metal rocker of his entire career. That's what's called stepping up to the three-point stripe and swishing it like nobody's business. "First Kiss" doesn't abscond with the Detroit bad ass you've come to know and love. Only thing that's happened is his gruff exterior softens so you can clearly make out the honey dripper underneath. There's not a disparaging word I have to impart about this. His backing band on this effort plays freewheeling. Each of them is fully invested in what he's doing. The drummer connects righteous rhythms again and again. Over on guitar we've got a gentlemen who's verve matches Kid Rock's chops. Our hero (or is that anti-hero?) has himself caught up in a nostalgic stir. Allow me to demonstrate. He flashes back to vintage memories focusing on his old Cheyenne truck, Jenny Clayton (his first girlfriend) listening to Tom Petty on the radio. There's a shot of whiskey blowing on the wind no doubt. Kid glorifies having only time to spend being that he was flat broke. I'm impressed by how he seems to float on the wings of all those flashbacks as if he could get to the moon and back and not even break a sweat. Leave it to him to breathe new blood into the whole remember when concept. It's been done to death more times than I can count but he grabs a hose, wipes the engine down and proceeds to have this concept sparkling like nostalgia was invented by Kid and Kid alone. Here the video gleams backwards and forwards. You know these bros take pride in strutting their stuff. My hat's off to the photographer. He captured the footloose euphoria down to the last frame. Whether he wants to cotton to it or not, Kid's matured in a major way. "Bawitaba" was the work of a cocky young buck (and yes, I liked it immensely). "First Kiss" wins the war because it is in no way excluding anybody from the party. Kid's never lacked an ability to captivate someone's attention after he's laid claim to it. He copped the street tough vibe on "Bawitaba". Time has mellowed him and make no mistake he's not a weaker man for doing so. Mellowing in his case does not mean growing lame. He'd likely beat you down for assuming such a thing. If his harder edges have been soften the asset revealed here takes the form of his giddy enthusiasm shining through without a glare peeking through his shades. Does he maintain ready stamina? You better believe that's the case. First note to last he keeps the jamboree hopping and disappoints absolutely no one. The guitarist skitters up and down the fret like he's reliving the sunny times Kid's drawing reference to. Add a col' beer and you'll be in eighth heaven because seventh heaven's too watered down to measure up to what Kid and crew are dishing out. "First Kiss" hopefully won't be the last outstanding track culled from this rebel's album. He's thrown down the gauntlet to any rock artist out there who dares to leave an even bigger imprint in the memory bank in this infant stage of 2015.