Set This Circus Down

As a singer who has parlayed boyish charm and modest talent into a multiplatinum career, Tim McGraw seems like the guy next door who got incredibly lucky--and not just with his marriage to Faith Hill. This easy-listening collection features a generous 14 cuts, heavy on power ballads ("You Get Used to Somebody," "Take Me Away from Here," "Why We Said Goodbye") with soaring choruses and frothy sentiments, but light on soulful substance. For variety, McGraw proves a dead-on Springsteen mimic with "Forget About You," dubiously links himself to Hank Williams and Elvis with "Things Change," and crosses over toward Ricky Martin territory on the Spanish-tinged "Let Me Love You." Hill joins hubby on background vocals for the comparatively subtle "Angry All the Time." --Don McLeese

As a singer who has parlayed boyish charm and modest talent into a multiplatinum career, Tim McGraw seems like the guy next door who got incredibly lucky--and not just with his marriage to Faith Hill. This easy-listening collection features a generous 14 cuts, heavy on power ballads ("You Get Used to Somebody," "Take Me Away from Here," "Why We Said Goodbye") with soaring choruses and frothy sentiments, but light on soulful substance. For variety, McGraw proves a dead-on Springsteen mimic with "Forget About You," dubiously links himself to Hank Williams and Elvis with "Things Change," and crosses over toward Ricky Martin territory on the Spanish-tinged "Let Me Love You." Hill joins hubby on background vocals for the comparatively subtle "Angry All the Time." --Don McLeese