Aldean’s seventh studio album They Don’t Know, available on iTunes today, offers a culmination of his past records. With steamy love ballads to sentimental, punch in the gut heartbreak songs, Aldean does what he does best: offers radio-friendly smash hits. With his wheelhouse, including a well balanced scale of party songs with a few servings of healthy country love jams, They Don’t Know will absolutely continue his legacy of number ones.
The album appropriately opens with “Lights Come On,” an anthem dedicated to the thrill of country shows through which one can almost hear the screams of the fans in the arenas that Aldean has played on his Six String Circus tour this summer. Closing the album out with “When the Lights Go Out,” Aldean infuses sex appeal with country rock and leaves little to the imagination.
His current single, “A Little More Summertime,” fits in perfectly with your dreary feelings about summer ending, begging for one or two more days of the season. A similar theme is felt in “In Case You Don’t Remember,” stirring up nostalgia, something he does particularly well. While teetering on pop-rock, the album is heavy in guitar on some songs while more tender and delicate on others. “Any Old Bar Stool” and “This Plane Don’t Go There” are melancholy breakup songs, and Aldean tears at your heartstrings while welcoming repeat spins.
Only one or two missteps on the record, “Bad” and “Comin’ in Hot,” seem too juvenile and commonplace for Aldean, especially with lines like “Comin’ to get some of what you’ve got / Girl I’m comin’ in hot / Girl I‘ve already stopped by the store / Can in a koozie sitting in your door / Cooler in the back if you want some more / Nah I ain’t playin’.”
While most of the album doesn’t inspire any new ideas, most tracks put a new spin on old ones. “Whiskey’d Up” and “All Out of Beer” are usual suspects of the country genre, drinking to numb the pain of heartbreak. While the tunes themselves are rather catchy, the cliché has been done many times before. A highlight on They Don’t Know hits you right in the middle of the album when singer-songwriter and number one artist Kelsea Ballerini duets with Aldean on “First Time Again.” Comparable to Chris Young and Cassadee Pope’s most recent number one “Think Of You,” the volley back and forth between Aldean and Ballerini, if made a single, will probably be a big hit for the duo.
The album is vintage Aldean, throwing it back to his “Amarillo Sky” days that built his fan base, audiences will appreciate the stories he tells in his signature way. Over the course of his career, the country megastar boasts fourteen million album sales; simply put, he knows how to produce music that his fans will love. They Don’t Know debuted at the top of the all genre charts this morning, proving his stardom isn’t fading out any time soon.
