Studio Masters

Tim McGraw – Two Lanes Of Freedom (2013/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:43 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Big Machine

After years of the strain of legal battles to get out of his contract with Curb Records, Tim McGraw emerges, relaxed and refreshed with Two Lanes of Freedom, his debut recording for Big Machine, co-produced with longtime collaborator Byron Gallimore. McGraw may be celebrating his independence, but he still understands what he needs to get played on country radio as evidenced by the collision of neo-traditionalist melody and hard rock guitars on the pre-release single “Truck Yeah (there are two versions on this set; one is live). His finger popping meld of pop, Southern soul, and contemporary pop on “Southern Girl” uses Auto-Tune in the chorus, and it actually works (why this wasn’t chosen as a single is a head scratcher). “Highway Don’t Care” — a duet with Taylor Swift (a thank you for namechecking him in her first big hit) with a killer guitar solo from Keith Urban — borrows some production cues from Swift’s playbook to excellent effect. The hook is irresistible and McGraw’s vocal, paired with the young singer’s, is a perfect match. This track is actually a real clue as to what McGraw’s about these days, wanting to be the perfect combination of pop, country, and rock in one persona. “One of These Nights” is classic McGraw, a midtempo paean to his protagonists object of desire. It’s a love song in a sense, but to the nostalgia of the future, not a woman. “Mexicoma” is a pre-hangover heartbreak tune combining a country two-step with a norteño polka; Mike Rojas’ accordion is a nice touch, especially where it meets the distorted slide guitars, upright piano, and horns. “Friend of a Friend” is a “talking to you while you’re not here” love song. McGraw’s protagonist tenderly offers the lyrics as an incantation, straight into the ear of the absent, longed-for other. The title track is saturated with contemporary country tropes, with enough rock & roll riffing to make it a perfect second single. “It’s Your World” is a rock & roll screamer, a guaranteed barroom dancefloor anthem. Despite its wide range of material and experimentation, this is the pop record McGraw has always wanted to make. He packs in a little of everything here, and some of it stumbles: “Annie I Owe You a Dance” has too many strings, and the poignant, “37405,” a narrative about a country singer turned convict, could have been leaner. But these are small complaints on a solid and ambitious recording. On Two Lanes of Freedom, McGraw proves he is indeed the artist that Curb never let him be. – Thom Jurek

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Tim McGraw – Sundown Heaven Town (2014/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:09 minutes | 1,59 GB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Big Machine

There’s no question Tim McGraw seized upon the opportunity to indulge his every whim when he finally extricated himself from Curb and signed with Big Machine in 2013, the year where Two Lanes of Freedom revived his career. His renaissance continues with 2014’s Sundown Heaven Town, his second album for Big Machine and a record that often plays like a direct sequel to its predecessor in that it’s designed to show off everything McGraw and his longtime collaborator/producer Byron Gallimore can do. Being that this follows a record where the big hit was a ballad — the haunting “Highway Don’t Care,” a duet with Taylor Swift — it’s not entirely a surprise that Sundown Heaven Town is distinguished by its smooth touch but within that gloss. Sure, McGraw never goes for a brawny rocker — when Kid Rock stops by for a duet on the deluxe, it’s for an easy-rolling, sunny ballad called “Lincoln Continentals and Cadillacs” — and the quickest pace is reserved for glistening midtempo pop like “City Lights,” but this record never seems to drag, not even in its longer 18-track incarnation, because McGraw and Gallimore are masters at pacing, something that is evident on individual songs as it is on the album as a whole. McGraw knows when to shift away from the spacious arena-country of “Shotgun Rider” to the light electronic accents of “Dust,” then to glide into the modernized southern soul of “Diamond Rings and Old Barstools” or when to get delicate, as he does on the sentimental (but not sappy) “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s.” This versatility isn’t showy, which is a large part of McGraw’s charm: he has an easy touch that not only warms the sheen of his gloss, it hides the meticulousness of his craft. He’s wound up making records that are the new millennial equivalent of classic soft rock, records informed by the trends of the day but which place emphasis on melody and craft, which is why they resonate: they come on smooth and easy but have the foundation to last. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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