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Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing

What’s the Story?

Reviewed by Kathi Kamen Goldmark

Keith Urban isn't a man who takes a lot of musical risks, but he knows how to draw on a variety of pop influences to create one satisfying, comfortable contemporary country hit after another. In LOVE, PAIN & THE WHOLE CRAZY THING, cliché'd lines like "When the sun is hard to find/when it's rainin' in your eyes…when you just can't see the light/baby, I'll find a way to shine" ("Shine") get a fresh new life with Urban's raucous rock-influenced guitar solos over pounding drum tracks. The stellar vocal performance, intensity and drama of "I Can't Stop Loving You" almost make up for the schlock-quotient. "Stupid Boy" is a lovely ballad about regret, lost love, and missed chances.

Is It Any Good?

4

Predictable and comforting as the sunrise, Keith Urban's lyrics cover a lot of old territory with just enough vivid poetry to keep tedium at bay. Many songs are upbeat declarations of love, friendship, and fidelity. And to endear the artist to female fans of all ages, there's "God Made Woman" ("When God made woman he must've been proud/He must've been cryin' or laughin' out loud/It must have felt like the first time/Getting' kissed by the sun/When God made woman"). Calculated or not, Keith Urban knows how to put a catchy song together with taste and style, so that the whole is inevitably greater than the sum of its parts, and that is a talent all by itself.

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