Album Review: Keith Urban – Get Closer
With his seventh studio album, Keith Urban continues on the journey of finding his identity, and the impetus on that path to happiness is his family. On Get Closer, the affable Aussie celebrates life with wife Nicole Kidman and their daughter, Sunday Rose, with a group of eight uplifting songs offering one cohesive message: love is grand.
Urban’s marriage can often serve as a perfect vehicle for his imagination. On “Georgia Woods,” he’s feeling frisky and loose: “What kind of spell is this/That you’ve cast on me with your kiss?” On “All for You,” he’s feeling grateful and satisfied: “Last night I fell asleep, and I saw you dancing in my dreams.” The sentiments expressed here are old standards, but Urban’s rich, emotive voice makes even the most obvious tropes sound thoughtful and sincere.
The glories of love, though liberating, have at times dried up an artist’s well of inspiration. At a mere thirty-three minutes long, Closer avoids a creative rut by being one of the shortest country albums in recent memory. A deluxe version of Get Closer, available only at Target, features four live songs from Urban’s “Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy World’’ tour and three new originals. That edition boasts the best-written song of the whole lot and a missing piece to the standard product: “The Luxury of Knowing,” a pensive ballad by Lori McKenna that chronicles a turbulent love affair.
Critics might be itching to pounce on Urban’s decidedly polished and progressive form of country music, a series of banjo fills and heavy electric guitar riffs. Urban, along with producer Dann Huff, makes sure it’s a winning mix. So often caution has taken over passion in Nashville, but he follows his creative and sonic muse faithfully, and the rewards here are plenty. For all the bangs and explosions in his unique brand of roots rock, Urban, at his core, prefers quieter emotions and reflective moments. Songs like “Without You” and “Right Back to You” could be seen by some as mere pleasantries, but both expose emotional truths that are glossed over by many of his peers.
The most energizing cut here is “You Gonna Fly,” an arena-ready power ballad buoyed by harmonies from Little Big Town’s female half, where love is posited as the only option: “What are you trying to achieve?” Urban asks of his restless partner. “What are you trying to win?” Settling down, he’s learned after all, has finally set him free.
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November 24, 2010 at 6:52 am
Unfortunately, the reviewer is correct – the best song is on the Target exclusive. “The Luxury of Knowing,” and the bonus tracks bring that version of the album at least another half star and perhaps a full star. This really isn’t country, but Keith deserves full credit for allowing his musical muse freedom to wander
November 24, 2010 at 9:22 am
Overall a good album. Maybe not great, but good. “Long Hot Summer” was one of my favorite tracks from this album. No, it’s not really country, but it’s a formula that works well for Keith. I agree that “The Luxury of Knowing” was likely the best song on the album.
November 24, 2010 at 10:08 am
I love this album! Can’t stop listening to it! Keith sings with so much passion than any artist I know.
November 24, 2010 at 10:51 am
I have no desire to get within listening distance to this one…
November 24, 2010 at 11:41 am
I bought the Target Deluxe version the day it was released and haven’t been able to stop listening to it since. I really love it. I agree the Luxury of Knowing is a great song, so powerful. But, Georgia Woods is probably my favorite. If you enjoy great rock, powerful electric guitar solos, good lyrics, this is the song for you. But all of the other songs are wonderful, too. There isn’t one that I skip through. I give it the full 5 stars.
November 24, 2010 at 11:50 am
So……it’s seriously only 8 songs? Really? Shouldn’t this be classified as an EP or whatever…an “8-Pak”??
November 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Keith is following Blake Shelton in this new strategy of releasing less tracks and putting out faster than traditional albums. I am not a fan of this at all! I want my albums complete with 12 to 14 tracks.
November 24, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Hey, you can’t say you weren’t warned! I told you all about the CD’s basic length in that “Right Size Me” column a month ago! Fact checked it and everything..
November 24, 2010 at 1:24 pm
The main reason for only 8 songs is to try and keep the price down in this bad economy. For those of us who want more and can afford it, that’s why the Target version.
November 24, 2010 at 2:36 pm
My task is to purchase the cd this weekend, that will be very much in anticipation … On checking the ARIA country music charts, Get Closer has opened at #2 (behind Taylor Swift) and Keith’s Greatest Hits album is at #7 …
November 24, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Y’know, given that the Target Exclusive is only to be through end of 2010 and that the label sent a 10 track version of this record to stream for review, I have a feeling that sometime this coming spring or by next fall the album will be re-issued with the 10 tracks. “Big Promises” and “The Luxury of Knowing” could very well be singles after that point.
November 24, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Keith is following Blake Shelton in this new strategy of releasing less tracks and putting out faster than traditional albums. I am not a fan of this at all! I want my albums complete with 12 to 14 tracks.
Actually, before CDs, albums were routinely 8 tracks long. It’s more like a return to ‘old ways’ than following the SixPak EP strategy.
November 24, 2010 at 4:39 pm
BORN TO RUN has only eight tracks.
November 24, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Matt said “Actually, before CDs, albums were routinely 8 tracks long. It’s more like a return to ‘old ways’ than following the SixPak EP strategy.”
I started buying albums in the late 1950′s (Ricky Nelson, The Everly Brothers) and almost all had at least 10 and in most cases 12 songs. I was just listening to John Denver’s 1975 “Windsong” album a few days ago and it had 12 songs. Who was making all these 8 song albums before cds? Based on my album collection albums were not “routinely” 8 songs.
November 24, 2010 at 6:35 pm
“Born to Run” has only 8 tracks.”
One of the tracks on “Born to Run” is 9-and-a-half minutes and another one is 6-and-a-half. The album runs about 40 minutes. In the LP age, that was about the physical maximum for a single-disc major label product. (Some import compilations managed to stuff more music on an lp, but that was at the expense of sound quality.)
November 24, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Yeah, I’m not sure where this albums-were-8-tracks stuff comes from. That’s not my recollection, especially with respect to country albums – although it’s true that the labels were trying to put over shorter albums toward the end of the LP/cassette era.
November 24, 2010 at 8:10 pm
LPs in the US had 10-12 cuts through most of their history.
November 24, 2010 at 8:18 pm
RCA was the chief offender as the leader in offering less music on the albums. Durings the 1960s, 11 or 12 tracks was standard on country albums, except budget reissue labels such as RCA Camden, Decca’s Vocalion & Coral labels, MGM’s Metro label, United Artist/Imperial’s Sunset Label and Columbia’s Harmony label which typically had ten tracks (labels such as Capitol and Dot had arrangements with Pickwick for budget line reissues). By the early 1970s Decca and Columbia were still normally putting 11 tracks on an album but RCA and Capitol had dropped to ten tracks. By the late 1970s everyone was at ten tracks with budget labels having nine tracks.
I don’t think that eight ever was the standard for vinyl albums although during the cassette era a lot of reissue cassettes had eight tracks on them. RCA did issue mini-LPs duing the 1980s with six or eight tracks, often to introduce new acts (with “full-sized albums” sometimes having nine tracks, particularly during the transition period when vinyl was being phased out. During this period vinyl would have nine tracks with the CD having a “bonus track” to bring it up to ten tracks to justify the higher price
November 24, 2010 at 9:52 pm
The LP rock albums I bought in the 60′s and 70′s averaged 10 to 12 tracks unless they contained really long songs, which of course reduced the count. I must say I find this subject far more interesting than that of the music on Keith’s album, and especially comments from crazed fangurls and fanboyz…
November 25, 2010 at 12:51 am
Hmmmm…maybe you gus need to take a listen to RASCAL FLATTS new CD, “Nothing Like This.” Their new album is amazing—definitely their best one yet!! There is not one song on thise record that I skip over. I listen to the entire CD from beginning to end…and then repeat…:)
November 25, 2010 at 6:18 am
All I can say is that I likely would have bought this album first thing on release day, but I still haven’t picked it up from Target yet. I’m not saying I never will, but I’m not over the principle of my annoyance of the strategy that seems anti-fans yet. The “it’s for economic purposes” argument is a nice attempt, but ridiculous in the end. Many full length albums are available for $7.99 and less on Amazon and even in box stores, so the same could have been the case for Urban’s album if saving fans money was what this was truly all about.
November 25, 2010 at 6:24 am
In fact, Urban’s explanation of the strategy seems quite the opposite of trying to give his fans an economical alternative, but more like hoping to get their money twice, which is essentially my biggest problem with purchasing the album in any form at this point:
“In some ways it’s all just one record, but one is a shorter version while the Target version is the full album,” Urban says. “If people get the shorter version and love it, maybe they’ll want to hear some more songs.”
http://www.billboard.com/news/keith-urban-to-get-closer-to-fans-with-target-1004121141.story#/news/keith-urban-to-get-closer-to-fans-with-target-1004121141.story
November 25, 2010 at 8:02 am
I think he means that if they only want to spend a little they can check out his music and if they love it then they can listen to the rest of his music.
November 25, 2010 at 11:05 pm
LOVE THE NEW CD SIMPLE AS THAT .HE IS AN AMAZING
ARTIST .I JUST ENJOY BUYING MUSIC -I HAVE SEEN OTHER ARTISTS THAT HAVE DONE THE SAME THING AND YOU MIGHT FIND 2 OR 3 TRACKS WORTH LISTENING TO BUT THIS CD EVERY SONG IS REALLY GOOD SO I FEEL I GOT MY MONEYS WORTH AND MORE-I BOUGHT THE TARGET VERSION WHICH HAS IT ALL WHICH IS THE SAME PRICE OF ALL THE OTHER ARTISTS CD .GREAT MUSIC FROM A TRULY GIFTED ARTIST !A GREAT BUY FOR ME
November 29, 2010 at 8:31 am
Rick, why don’t you grow up and stop acting like a child yourself. You act like you’re more jealous of Keith as a man than simply not liking his music. Go buy the Rascal Flatts CD or a Taylor Swift CD and see if that will make you feel better.
December 4, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I paid 11.99 at Kmart and bought this album. I’ve never bought a country CD in my life but saw him perform Put You In A Song and loved it. I never looked at the back to see it was only 8 songs. I never would have bought it. That’s a crock, not to mention the video is as cheesy as it gets. Is this how country music is??? If so, I’m out.
December 4, 2010 at 3:12 pm
An Add-on to my previous message. I didn’t know there was another CD or else I wouldn’t have bought this one. I saw it, saw it was a good price and bought it. Has left a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve made a CD and was always taught the rule of thumb is $1.00 per song. So I paid $12 for only 8 songs….sorry I gave to the Keith Urban fund.
December 4, 2010 at 3:33 pm
For Christina: I would have bought the Keith Urban CD at Target. It has bonus tracks!
December 5, 2010 at 10:03 am
Frankly I didnt like Kieths stuff when he first emerged, but now I really dig his stuff, I think hes one of the greats now, Hes’s a great guitar player, and has great vocal capturing abililties
meaning he really can draw the listener into his songs, thumbs up from me,
http://www.nashvillecalifornia.com