AMG Review of Bullets in the Gun [Deluxe Edition]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Aggressive though the title may be, Bullets in the Gun winds up being the Toby Keith album with the lightest touch since 2006’s White Trash with Money. A light touch doesn’t mean Keith has lost his swagger: Bullets still pulses with testosterone -- flirting with misogyny in the dirty jokes of “Get Out of My Car,” Keith redeeming himself with his bawdy humor -- but it also swings, easing into the bluesy gait of “Think About You All of the Time” and rocking & rolling through “Drive It on Home,” catching its breath on “Somewhere Else” while admiring the colorful characters dotting the “Trailerhood.” Excepting the too-cool commercial sheen of “Kissin’ in the Rain,” there are no unexpected left turns on the album, but Keith is so firmly within his wheelhouse that he’s comfortable enough to take his time and have some fun, never laboring too hard -- as he sometimes did on the perfectly fine but mildly perfunctory American Ride -- but not getting lazy, either. It’s a lean, tight record that takes its time but doesn’t dawdle; it has the easy confidence of a pro who knows that he’s working at the top of his game. [Bullets in the Gun is expanded by four live covers in its Deluxe Edition: a rip-roaring version of Johnny Paycheck's “11 Months & 29 Days,” a long ramble through Waylon Jennings' “Waymore’s Blues” -- credited as “I’ve Been a Long Time Leaving (But I’ll Be a Long Time Gone)" on the album cover, for some reason -- a rollicking take on Roger Miller’s “Chug a Lug,” and a slow-rolling version of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown.” ]