Fun (2020)

by Garth Brooks

The title Fun pledges nothing but a good time, a sentiment that's hardly unfamiliar to Garth Brooks yet one that plays a little differently in 2020, when he's 14 albums and three decades deep into a career. While Brooks is nimble enough to not be burdened by the accumulated weight of the years, he opens Fun with "The Road I'm On," a driving country-rocker that acknowledges his journey and the importance of his fellow travelers -- namely, the fans who have stuck with him throughout a career that has rarely seen a rough patch ... Read More

The title Fun pledges nothing but a good time, a sentiment that's hardly unfamiliar to Garth Brooks yet one that plays a little differently in 2020, when he's 14 albums and three decades deep into a career. While Brooks is nimble enough to not be burdened by the accumulated weight of the years, he opens Fun with "The Road I'm On," a driving country-rocker that acknowledges his journey and the importance of his fellow travelers -- namely, the fans who have stuck with him throughout a career that has rarely seen a rough patch. Fun is designed to please that audience, offering a cozy selection of arena rockers, power ballads, drinking tunes, and love songs, tracks that play equally well at the bar or the beach. It's not without its serious moments -- the closing "Where the Cross Don't Burn," a duet with Charley Pride, is deliberately and effectively moving -- but the record is designed to be a transportive bit of entertainment, an old-fashioned platter that evokes memories of how they did it back then without quite succumbing to nostalgia. From its sturdy songwriting bones to the clean snap of its production, Fun feels like a throwback to the 1990s in its attitude and aesthetic. Brooks is keenly aware that he's living in the 2020s -- he's invited his wife, Trisha Yearwood, to duet on a version of "Shallow," the song that won Lady Gaga an Oscar in 2019 -- but his adherence to the sound and style of his 1990s prime feels like a conscious and clever bit of traditionalism from the onetime phenomenon. Aware that he's making the kind of country that doesn't trouble the upper reaches of the singles charts, he doubles down on the songs that make him and the audience feel good, winding up with a record that lives up to its title. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi Read Less