Shock'n Y'all

Move over, Lee Greenwood. Your status as country music’s most opportunistic flag-flogger is under direct fire from hefty, blond pretty-boy Toby Keith. First, Keith rushed “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” to radio to ride the wave of nationalistic fervor following September 11. Now he returns with songs like “American Soldier” and “The Taliban Song,” on an album whose title is an oh-so-playful nod to the Bush administration’s classy descriptor of its initial bombing campaign against Iraq. Let’s get one thing straight: There’s nothing wrong with patriotic music. But this stuff is pure tripe. “American Soldier” is a collection of clichés and slogans (“Freedom don’t come free”) set to a fittingly schlocky, string-doused accompaniment. “The Taliban Song” is uglier—a jingoistic and reductive celebration of the war in Afghanistan presented as a campy novelty tune. Beyond a serviceable shot of Southern rock (“Time for Me to Ride”), there’s little to recommend here unless you’ve got a hankering for country clichés (drinking, drinking, women, cowboy boots, and drinking) by the truckload.