Rhett Miller

Performer: Rhett Miller
Distributor: Sony Music Entertainment

Notes: One of Rhett Miller's strengths as an artist is an ability to shift effortlessly between his duties as Old 97s frontman/resident pin-up and his own burgeoning solo career. On this 2009 release (his third) the authentic twang of his main band is on display on songs like "Sometimes" and "Another Girlfriend," but the overall trend is springy power-pop songcraft. The drolly tuneful "If It's Not Love" and "I Need to Know Where I Stand" suggest years of apprenticeship with Nick Lowe, while the snaky melody and sensuous strum of "Refusing Temptation" sounds like a b-side from a '90s Matthew Sweet album. The bouncy "Like Life" features Miller's most soulful vocal and insistent melodic hook. Altogether, the 12 songs show an evolving songwriting talent.

Spin (p.90) - "[Miller] can still summon the inspiration to deliver authentic thrills..." Alternative Press (p.130) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'If It's Not Love' calls on the same walloping rock that gave his band, Old 97's, their sea legs 15 years ago." Billboard (p.56) - "Miller's best here at his most stripped-down as in 'Haphazardly,' a wistful ballad in which he discovers 'what the house feels like without you in it.'" Paste (magazine) (p.58) - "[He] remembers bitter valentines, exposing his battered heart in a collection of ambiguous love songs that replay the age-old war of the sexes with new language and a new outcome."

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