Let It Go

Last Dollar (Fly Away) opens Tim McGraw's 2007 long-player with a bouncing, elated, feel-good mood. It was penned by Big Kenny (of Big & Rich), and hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart — but the tune hardly sets the tone for McGraw's ninth studio album. Most of Let It Go finds McGraw waxing weary with pensive songs and dusky ballads like "I'm Workin'," which attempts to understand the everyday weight of the blue-collar family man, or the honky-tonk rooted "Whiskey And You," another moving number that burns slowly with lyrics like "I drink 'cause I'm lonesome/ and I'm lonesome 'cause I drink," touching on how alcoholism inevitably destroys relationships. Even the slightly funky "Suspicions" is based on insecurity and a lack of self confidence, and elsewhere his lyrics admit to codependency with disturbing metaphors such as "I need you like a needle needs a vein." Things lighten up a little with "Kristofferson," where the singer longs to woo his woman with the kind of love song that Kris Kristofferson would write, and "I Need You" is a beautiful duet with McGraw's wife Faith Hill.