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Country superstar Luke Bryan‘s sixth album What
Makes You Country opens with the title track, a stomping Southern rock
assertion of downhome cred that says, essentially, country is an expression
that comes in many shapes and sizes. Fair enough, because over the course of 15
tracks he outlines a template for modern country that includes the surprisingly
believable R&B sex jams “Bad Lovers” and “Hungover in a
Hotel Room,” as well as the icy, synth-driven flip of gender roles in “Pick
It Up” and the gloriously goofy sing-along “Drinking Again.”
There are a few whiffs, like the foul “She’s a Hot One” (“She might be a mess, but she’s a hot one”), but Bryan truly excels
when he’s all nostalgic for the uncomplicated ease of a summer fling in “Sunrise,
Sunburn, Sunset” or subtly acknowledging the beauty of all types of love
in the gently uplifting “Most People Are Good.”
