Blake Shelton
Bringing Back the Sunshine
He’s been coasting on his celebrity status and his brand of aw-shucks humor for years, so it’s encouraging that Blake Shelton’s Bringing Back the Sunshine seems less phoned-in than its predecessors.
The set is still characterized by a mellow feel-good vibe that is never challenging or interesting in any meaningful way, but the songs are at least intermittently better-written than what many of Shelton’s chart-topping contemporaries are peddling. “Good Country Song” and lead single “Neon Light” are both throwbacks in their structure to the hits of the late 80s and early 90s, while “Lonely Tonight” is elevated by Shelton’s vocal chemistry with Ashley Monroe.
Still, as with the pizzas Shelton hocks for Pizza Hut, Sunshine is stuffed with a whole lot of processed cheese and lacks real sustenance, so it lives or dies by Shelton’s charisma.
Recommended Tracks: “Lonely Tonight,” “Good Country Song”