Kid Rock - Rock 'n' Roll Jesus

Watching the video to Kid Rock's surprise UK hit All Summer Long, you have to wonder just what happened to the self-styled Devil Without A Cause of old. Listening to Rock 'n' Roll Jesus, it's obvious. Back when he first burst onto the scene, Kid Rock was a rap-rocker with plenty of attitude, heavy guitars, stomping beats and a 4ft tall rapper called Joe C in his crew. He was rude, crude and a lot of fun, but with success - and the sad death of Joe C - came a more mature sound over the course of his next few albums, while his personal life started to get more headlines than his music. Nowadays he's more of a Southern country rocker than anything, with an emphasis on slightly twee lyrics over the party anthems of old, though there are still a few of those in the shape of So Hott and Sugar, while Half Your Age shows that he hasn't completely mellowed by lashing out at his ex, Pamela Anderson. But it's All Summer Long that best sums up Kid Rock nowadays, with its Lynyrd Skynyrd riffs showing the kind of music he is trying to make, while the lyrics drip with mawkish nostalgia. It's a catchy tune, but a very bland one too, and the same can be said for too many of the songs here, with Amen and When U Love Someone particular culprits. There's nothing wrong with taking your music back to its Southern roots, but in doing so, Kid Rock seems to have ended up copying the wrong kind of country music, ending up not sounding like Skynyrd or the Allman Brothers, but some of the more safe and commercial artists from Nashville. The Devil Without A Cause has gone platinum and turned into a Rock 'n' Roll Jesus, but he's misplaced the rock 'n' roll on the way...