Uncle Kracker – 72 and Sunny

Artist: Uncle Kracker

Title: 72 and Sunny

Label: Lava

Rating: 4.5/10

CORPORATE LINE: 72 AND SUNNY is also the title of Uncle Kracker’s third album, and it’s, well, pretty perfect itself. Following 2000’s double-platinum DOUBLE WIDE and 2002’s chart-topping NO STRANGER TO SHAME — which launched Uncle Kracker’s record-setting rendition of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” — 72 AND SUNNY is the most fully realized album to date from Kid Rock’s former DJ and hype man. Its 13 songs offer an artistic triumph of songwriting and performance that is the best expression yet of the Uncle Kracker sound, emphasizing high-quality melodic songwriting and a unique stylistic synthesis that knits together elements of pop, rock, country, soul, blues and even doo-wop but retains a strong identity that could only belong to one singer-songwriter. Think about the warm, earnest sound of classics such as THE BAND, Rod Stewart’s GASOLINE ALLEY or Little Feat’s TIME LOVES A HERO and you have a sense of the high artistic mark Uncle Kracker aspires towards this time out.

THE GREAT:
“Last Night Again” – Kenny Chesney outshines Kracker. Kracker could have given the song to Chesney and raked in the profits. Chesney’s voice is a silk scarf to Kracker’s sandpaper vocals. It works and could be a big country single.

THE AVERAGE:
“Rescue” and “Further Down The Road” – Yes there are good hooky. Radio singles? Yes. Is it great? No.
“This Time” – Kracker sounds tired going through the motions.
“A Place At My Table” – Dixieland take my hand. This could have been great if the chorus wasn’t so elementary.

THE BAD:
“Don’t Know How (Not To Love You)” – Painfully plain. Kracker sounds bored.
“What Do We Want” – Kracker should have sold this to some simple-minded bad pop rock band like Sugar Ray.

FRANKLY: Uncle Kracker had a hit single with Kenny Chesney (“When The Sun Goes Down”) and 72 and Sunny continues in the country frame of mind. There is a little Rod Stewart and Bob Seger mixed in for good measure. Kracker is undeniably good at writing songs that make you sing along—but where is the depth? Where is the soul? Songs like “What Do We Want” are gutless. They sound more like a bad pop rock track that Sugar Ray would try to sell us. Kracker was all about kicking great hooks with soul instead he’s gone for the radio single and forgot about the heart that made us like him in the first place.

+ Rae Gun