Tim McGraw - Emotional Traffic - Printable Version +- Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com) +-- Forum: Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4) +--- Forum: Pop/Dance (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=12) +--- Thread: Tim McGraw - Emotional Traffic (/showthread.php?tid=6592)

Tim McGraw - Emotional Traffic - Music Head - 24-01-2012 online listen the placement is not a mistake nope, I refuse to put this album in the country section one country song on this album which is the clip (nice live performance) and the best thing on it that will no doubt be played on the country stations making people think the album is like it one other good song in the last track other than that mostly crap a duo with r&b legend Ne-Yo, give me a break 1.3 from me and a converted 2.4 from the pros at allmusic from the album - Better Than I Used To Be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwLn0NpySIk released Jan 24th, 2012 Bio - from allmusic When Tim McGraw debuted in the early '90s, few would have predicted that he would eventually take over Garth Brooks' position as the most popular male singer in country music. Yet that's exactly what he did, thanks to a string of multi-platinum albums, a high-profile marriage to fellow superstar Faith Hill, and Brooks' own inevitable decline. His sound epitomized the strain of commercial country that dominated his era: updated honky tonk and Southern-fried country-rock on the uptempo tunes, well-polished, adult contemporary-tinged pop on the ballads. Helped out early in his career by several novelty items, McGraw simply wound up cranking out hookier hits on a more consistent basis than any of his peers. By the late '90s, he was not only a superstar among country fans, but a mainstream celebrity with a large female following. Samuel Timothy McGraw was born in Delhi, Louisiana on May 1, 1967. Though he didn't know it until years later, his father was baseball player Tug McGraw, a star relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets who'd had a brief affair with McGraw's mother. He was raised mostly in the small town of Start, Louisiana, near Monroe, and grew up listening to a variety of music: country, pop, rock, and R&B. He attended Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship, studying sports medicine, and it was only then that he started playing guitar to accompany his singing. He played the local club circuit and dropped out of school in 1989, heading to Nashville on the same day his hero Keith Whitley passed away. He sang in Nashville clubs for a couple of years and landed a deal with Curb in 1992. His debut single, the minor hit "Welcome to the Club," was released later that year, and his self-titled debut album appeared in 1993 but failed to make the charts. McGraw's fortunes changed with the lead single from his 1994 sophomore effort, Not a Moment Too Soon. "Indian Outlaw" was embraced as a light-hearted, old-fashioned novelty song by fans but was heavily criticized for what some regarded as patronizing caricatures of Native Americans. Despite some radio stations' refusal to air the song, it reached the country Top Ten and even crossed over to the pop Top 20. All the publicity helped send McGraw's next single, the ballad "Don't Take the Girl," all the way to the top of the country charts; it too made the pop Top 20. The album kept spinning off hits: "Down on the Farm" hit number two, the title track went to number one in 1995, and the novelty tune "Refried Dreams" also reached the Top Five. Not a Moment Too Soon was a genuine blockbuster hit, eventually selling over five million copies and topping both the country and pop album charts; it was also the best-selling country album of the year. McGraw's follow-up, 1995's All I Want, immediately consolidated his stardom with the number one smash "I Like It, I Love It." The album topped the country charts, reached the pop Top Five, and sold over two million copies. Once again, it functioned as a hit factory thanks to the number two "Can't Be Really Gone," the number one "She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart," and the Top Five "All I Want Is a Life" and "Maybe We Should Just Sleep on It." Over 1996, McGraw supported the album with an extensive tour, accompanied by opening act Faith Hill. In October, after the tour was over, McGraw and Hill married, in a union of country star power that drew plenty of attention from mainstream media. It doubtlessly helped McGraw's next album, 1997's Everywhere, become another crossover smash; it topped the country charts, fell one spot short of doing the same on the pop side, and sold four million copies. The lead single was a McGraw-Hill duet called "It's Your Love," which not only hit number one country, but made the pop Top Ten. Three more singles from the album -- "Everywhere," "Where the Green Grass Grows," and "Just to See You Smile" -- hit number one, and two others -- "One of These Days" and "For a Little While" -- reached number two. Meanwhile, "Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me," another husband-and-wife duet from Hill's 1998 album Faith, climbed into the Top Five. With the multi-platinum success of Everywhere, McGraw was poised to take over Brooks' throne as the king of contemporary country, a transition that only accelerated when Brooks confounded his fans with the Chris Gaines project. McGraw, meanwhile, just kept topping the charts. His next album, 1999's triple-platinum A Place in the Sun, hit number one country and pop, and four of its singles also hit number one: "Please Remember Me" (which featured Patty Loveless), "Something Like That," "My Best Friend," and "My Next Thirty Years." 2000 brought McGraw's first Greatest Hits compilation, a best-selling smash, and another Top Ten duet from Hill's Breathe album, "Let's Make Love." The song later won McGraw his first Grammy, for Best Country Vocal Collaboration. Also in 2000, McGraw had a brush with the law when he and tourmate Kenny Chesney got involved in a scuffle with police officers, after Chesney attempted to ride one of the officers' horses; McGraw was later cleared of assault charges and spent the rest of 2000 on a second tour with Hill. Released in 2001, Set This Circus Down (number one country, number two pop) kept McGraw's hit streak going into the new millennium, giving him four more number ones -- "Grown Men Don't Cry," "Angry All the Time," "The Cowboy in Me," and "Unbroken" -- just like that. In 2002, his duet with protégée Jo Dee Messina, "Bring on the Rain," also went to number one. For the follow-up album, McGraw defied country convention by entering the studio not with session musicians, but with his road band, the Dancehall Doctors, a unit that had been together since 1996 (with some members around even before that). Tim McGraw was released in late 2002 and produced Top Ten hits in "Red Rag Top" and "She's My Kind of Rain"; it also featured a startlingly faithful cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." McGraw kept the formula the same on 2004's chart-topping Live Like You Were Dying, utilizing his road band, as well as co-mixing/producing the record himself. Let It Go followed in 2007, with Southern Voice arriving in 2009. McGraw resumed recording in early 2010 with longtime co-producer Byron Gallimore. He finished the album Emotional Traffic and even toured in anticipation of its imminent release, but his longtime label Curb refused to release it, feeling it followed Southern Voice too quickly. The dispute landed both artist and label in court, resulting in a separation agreement. McGraw landed a major role in the film Country Strong which was released in 2011. He followed it with the single "Felt Good on My Lips," which reached the top spot on Billboard's Hot Country songs chart, and was followed by "Better Than I Used to Be"; both were pre-release singles for Emotional Traffic, which was finally issued in January of 2012, two years after it was completed and delivered to Curb. Album Review - from allmusic After nearly two years in the vault, Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic was released by Curb. McGraw finished it in 2010 and turned it in. Curb refused to release it, claiming it was too soon after 2009’s Southern Voice (though they released another hits compilation the same year). The two parties went to court to resolve the issue. Co- produced with longtime compadre Byron Gallimore, Emotional Traffic is McGraw’s most ambitious offering to date -- the credits list is enormous and the range of styles on display is wide. That said, its balance is impeccable. While its production style and arrangements stay somewhat inside contemporary country’s strictly defined boundaries -- guaranteeing it radio play -- the set also confidently pushes them to the breaking point, too. Take the album opener -- the midtempo ballad “Halo.” While it opens with a pedal steel whine, the electric guitars and bowed electric cellos sound like they could have come from a Snow Patrol or later Coldplay album, though they have more teeth. The chorus, however, is pure contemporary country, yet despite the production sheen, the track’s emotional depth resonates. McGraw also chose to cover Dee Ervin's “One Part, Two Part,” with wife Faith Hill on backing vocals. Buddy & Julie Miller also covered this tune on Written in Chalk, but McGraw’s version is grittier and more R&B, and evokes a younger, wilder Delbert McCLinton. “Only Human,” a duet with Ne-Yo, is a solid ballad underscored by ringing acoustic and electric guitars, and a hook in the refrain to die for (it’d be great in the redemption scene of a film). “The One” is as funky as CC gets, with its wah-wah guitars, howling B-3, and striding electric piano in the verses. Once more, the chorus brings it back inside the format but the groove remains. “Better Than I Used to Be” is another ballad, told in the time-worn country storytelling tradition. Its melody is standard radio fare, but the grain in McGraw’s voice offers a conviction that carries the tune above the tropes. The lengthy, ambient guitar intro to “Felt Good on My Lips” is sly, since it’s a dancehall bump number; it borrows from Jimmy Buffett’s trademark, Caribbean-flavored singalong style in the middle eights. The metaphoric “Die by My Own Hand,” which closes the set, is a devastating midtempo ballad with big, warm guitars and drums in the verses (so much so they could have been produced by Daniel Lanois). Pedal steel underscores the melody to evoke country before a shattering rock & roll power ballad crescendo carries it out. Emotional Traffic displays McGraw’s growth as a singer and producer, and reveals his longevity at the top of a fickle field. He only records when he has something to say, and he understands the rules well enough to bend and finally break them. In doing so, he expands the narrow framework of his genre and nearly forces it to embrace the whole of popular music. Track Listing 1. Halo 2. Right Back Atcha Babe 3. One Part, Two Part 4. I Will Not Fall Down 5. The One 6. Better Than I Used to Be 7. Touchdown Jesus 8. The One That Got Away 9. Felt Good on My Lips 10. Hey Now 11. Only Human 12. Die by My Own Hand