I have always been a HUGE fan of this band, with its killer harmonies and aching tunes. "Come Cryin' To Me" is one of the best tunes anywhere out of the past five years, and "No News" is probably the best written of these so called "country rap" tunes that everyone is trying to spit out these days. "Lonestar" also puts on a great, great show.

Does anyone reading this see a but coming? It is. It's a huge but. Bigger than 4 o' clock as we say in the hills... This album sucks. I'm sorry, there is no less blunt way around it. These mostly mediocre heartbreaking misfires could get a 3 or 3 1/2 stars if perhaps they were sung by a group that's new, or that we expect less from. But "Lonestar" is a bunch of incredibly talented singers, musicians and writers. They've won a slew of awards, have had a butload of #1 songs, and I'm sorry, material like this coming from a group I admire and respect and (USUALLY!!!) enjoy so much is unacceptable.

When I heard the first horrid track, "Saturday Night," with its bizarre fiddle lick and its "S A T U R D A Y" chanting that incongrously recalled the Bay City Rollers, I thought, Well, I love this group. I'll give them a break, even though this song goes on FOREVER at nearly five minutes. But then "Simple As That" ruined a groovin' hook in the verse with an annoying chorus. "Amazed" I already loathed as new poppy glop that sadly is marching its way up the singles chart, and then "What About Now" gives a new spin on how to make a song crappy with its great, nifty chorus stunted by lame verses.

This already wasn't a good sign, if the first THIRD of an entire disc that you were expecting great things from just bites hard. But I was hoping something would salvage it.

Nope.

To be fair, and to grab for a life preserver in this album's ocean of dreck, there are two songs on here that do recall how awesome an act "Lonestar" can be. (And I think still is. Someone just must have gone to sleep on the judgment table when they made this use-for-a-coaster CD.) "Don't Let's Talk About Lisa" winds its incongruously grammared title around a hoot of a set of lyrics about a woman we should'nt mention.

The title track is a gloriously lovely, Eagles-sounding song, that could almost save the whole album if there were more than 1/6 of the songs that didn't make this reviewer feel he was about to lose a meal all over the stereo AND the keyboard.

No need to beat a dead horse, the rest of the album is horrible also. For some insane reason, they inserted an acoustic version of their recent smash "Everything's Changed." It ends up so pale and boring, that what they do do this killer song reminds me of taking a beautifully colorful painting and suddenly rendering it in sepia.

If you are a "Lonestar" fan (as by the grace of God and turning off the stereo I still am) let's hope that ". . .Lisa" and "Lonely Grill" become the band's next two hit singles, and that we get another album soon from these talented folks, who prayerfully will then relegate this disc to the "What were we thinking?" file. Or the garbage can.