Tim Mcgraw - A Place In The Sun

The party-hearty raucousness of "I Like It, I Love It" seems like a lifetime ago for Tim McGraw, whose fifth album strikes a more reflective chord. Whether ruminating on how it felt to be "Seventeen," making resolutions for "My Next Thirty Years," or probing the depths of Rodney Crowell's "Please Remember Me," his music shows the effects of marriage and maturity. Even the drinking songs, "Senorita Margarita" and "She'll Have You Back," share an older-but-wiser sentiment. While there are no duets with wife Faith Hill, her presence is evident on "My Best Friend" and "Some Things Never Change." McGraw wrote none of the songs here, but his emotional investment in the material results in an engaging collection. --Don McLeese