ARTIST: Kid Rock
ALBUM: First Kiss
LABEL: Warner Bros. Records
RELEASE DATE: February 20, 2015
Steady Climbin’
Written by Silas Valentino
Love him, despise him, mock him or casually listen to him; one thing that you can’t really do is ignore Kid Rock. He’s a musical clown that turns the joke into a platinum career and a life of leisure. Anytime a smirk is released in regards to his music, another spoonful of sugar must be slipped into that hole above his scruffy southern goatee. How can you be America’s badass and not profit off your critics? And you gotta give Rock some credit on this record. For his harshest critics I pose this question: how many songs about the same ol’ thing can you write? From “Drinking Beer with Dad” to Jesus, Kid Rock details a romanticized lifestyle for 50 minutes in his recent First Kiss, his 10th release. Ten albums later and Kid Rock is showing no signs of maturity – nor a decline.
Album opener, title track and a ballad to the past is “First Kiss.” From the opening guitar lick – which sounds identical to Bryan Adam’s anthem “Summer of ‘69” – to a chorus longing for the days with “Tom Petty on the radio/Going steady with nowhere to go,” this single is the album’s calling card. The lyrics are so simple that any Tom or Sally could relate and the music is perfectly arranged to sound like an amalgamation of pop rock hits for the time period he sings his praise. If you find yourself nodding along to the crisp rock music or aligning your personal experiences with the mini tales that Rock strings together, then you’re in for treat for the next ten songs are akin to an incestuous gathering of musical numbers.
Next up is the honky tonk “Good Times, Cheap Wine” where Rock takes shots. Not whiskey shots, but shots at contemporary cultural elements that bug him. Coldplay, Coachella, skinny jeans, social media outlets; all of these facets are fodder for Rock to play around with and shape to create his badass, lone cowboy persona. Rock turned 44 last January and with “Good Times, Cheap Wine” he’s really drawing a line between his generation and the millennials. Which is smart. Rock knows his biggest shows rarely feature sub-30 year olds and are performed miles away from either coastal side. His base is located right in the middle where fancy flash earns you nothing but a target for ridicule. Middle-aged, middle America is for Rock.
Rock lets listeners into his family circle during “Drinking Beer with Dad,” inspired by his relationship with his son Robert Ritchie Jr. Nicknamed Junior, the sole son of Rock is a college student in Nashville with music career ambitions of his own. He’s a recent father himself and this perspective of a Rock watching his son become a dad is what carries “Drinking Beer with Dad.” The lyrics work because Rock sings with raspy conviction: “Nowadays most things have changed/This whole world is heading down the drain/A little discipline would sure be nice/A little lesson in wrong and right/Maybe it’s time young man to have a beer with dad.”
Kid Rock is two albums away from producing the same amount of records The Beatles released in their career. That’s not to say Rock is anywhere near their level of musical ability or influence but he’ll soon join their ranks of longevity. He does this because – somehow – Kid Rock is a musical Lernaean Hydra: cut off one of his heads (or disregard an album or two of his) and he’ll soon be back with a fresh batch that’s steaming with a I-don’t-give-a-rat’s-ass attitude. He’s America’s cowboy. And that long ride into the sunset is currently far away from his horizon.