Fully Loaded: God's Country splits the difference between a compilation and a new EP, balancing seven relatively recent hits with five cuts making their debut here. The two bookend cuts -- "God's Country," which feels like it could've been written by Aaron Lewis, and the swaggering Trace Adkins duet "Hell Right" -- emphasize Shelton's burlier side, but he gets sweeter when he sings the power ballad "Nobody But You" with Gwen Stefani and lays back for the sunny "Jesus Got a Tight Grip," which never seems as religious as its ...
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Fully Loaded: God's Country splits the difference between a compilation and a new EP, balancing seven relatively recent hits with five cuts making their debut here. The two bookend cuts -- "God's Country," which feels like it could've been written by Aaron Lewis, and the swaggering Trace Adkins duet "Hell Right" -- emphasize Shelton's burlier side, but he gets sweeter when he sings the power ballad "Nobody But You" with Gwen Stefani and lays back for the sunny "Jesus Got a Tight Grip," which never seems as religious as its chorus suggests. Save for "Tequila Sheila" -- a pointless replica of Bobby Bare's 1980 hit, right down to the fake crowd noises -- the new cuts are strong enough, and when they're paired with the hits 2016's If I'm Honest and 2017's Texoma Shore, it amounts to a pretty solid Blake Shelton album, albeit one that feels like the holding pattern it was intended to be. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
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