Always Never the Same

george at his best

George Strait's work in the '90s is like a hall of mirrors: each new million-seller mirrors the previous million-seller, which mirrors the one that came before. And yet the master's touch never fails, and the music charms and sometimes thrills. Drawing again on his steady stable of writers--Jim Lauderdale, Dean Dillon, Steve Bogard, and Jeff Stevens--and adding Melba Montgomery's careful pen, Strait's latest is a fitting end to a decade he helped define for country music. The material isn't especially impressive given the routine, radio-safe themes, and Strait's band--the crème de la crème of Nashville (Randy Scruggs, Stuart Duncan, Paul Franklin)--plays impeccably but with little distinction. Still, even the middling material, delivered in Strait's lush, plangent tenor, has hit potential. Except for the two-beer ballad "That's the Truth" (one to drink, one to cry into), which explores the borders of deception and honesty, and the soaring, climactic "Meanwhile," which very convincingly weaves reality and fantasy, Always Never the Same is good but never great, consistent but never classic. --Roy Kasten