Alan Jackson Wants To Go Back

Good Time is not the best Alan Jackson album. I'd go with Here In The Real World, Drive or Don't Rock The Jukebox, but its the most idiosyncratic. For one, there are 17 songs, and all were written by Jackson. Second, Jackson, like the rest of the Country (or Country music), wants to go back to the days before the high gas prices, endless wars and high unemployment. And he's written two songs about it: "1976" which might be the first Country song to mention a Democratic President (Carter), and the equally simplistic " I Still Like Bologna", which will be a future hit. Both will get the most press from this album. Beneath the uptempo and love songs that Jackson has rode to the top of the charts, there's always been something deeper in Jackson's psyche that keeps me interested. A certain stubborness about where his career should go. He's had marriage problems, and its eluded to here, and with that he also is the only Country star who writes his own stuff who understands the complexities of marriage. On the hilarious "Nothing Left To Do", he's fashioned the best 21st Century Country love song with good humour. At 17 songs there are enough clunkers here to keep it from being his best album, but many albums later it's good for now.