Keith Urban – “Sweet Thing”

Songwriters: Keith Urban & Monty Powell.

Urban is so damn good that he’s just doing his own thing at this point. And who’s going to stop him? It’s not really country. It’s not really pop. It’s not even really what we’d define as country-pop. But this guy sweats musical talent–rather, he would sweat musical talent if he wasn’t so cool.

So, if sugary “sweet things” like this feel-good romp, the first single from his as-yet-unnamed fifth studio album, are what makes him happy, well, more power to him. Even if this song does sound a bit like a weird cross between Billy Currington, Richard Marx and Savage Garden.

I have to admit, as “Sweet Thing” opens and Urban starts rattling off the song’s semi-hushed, quick-paced lyrics, I half expect him to say something about a “chica cherry cola.”

Similarities to 90s Aussie pop duos aside, what stands out most about this—as with all of Urban’s music—is just how well it’s spun together. If this is country-pop, it is hard to imagine anyone ever doing it with more passion, more intensity, and more effectiveness than Mr. Nicole Kidman.

Intensity is a key word in this discussion, because one of the coolest things about Urban’s music is its lack of frivolity. It may too often be unrealistically upbeat and nauseatingly optimistic, but there’s always a tangible seriousness to it, and Urban, an emotionally committed vocalist, is always insurmountably believable. There is a sense, no matter what he happens to be singing about, that he’s sharing the music that is in his heart at that given moment. It has zero pretense.

Further, Urban is a uniquely focused artist, and that focus shows most on material like this—a fluffy, otherwise inconsequential concept that he’s nonetheless able to elevate to a level that makes it hard not to like (at least a little). From lyrical detail to production to vocal phrasing to the almost inaudible “na nas” and “oh ohs” that pop up in the background, “Sweet Thing” is about as tight a record as can be made.

Well done, mate.

Listen: Keith Urban – “Sweet Thing”