Let's Be Us Again

Lonestar has sold the bulk of their 8 million albums on the strength of two things: lead singer Richie McDonald's straight-to-the-heart, emotive vocals, and crossover songs that express the Hallmark sentiments of tongue-tied Romeos and Wal-Mart dads. The premier target of these valentines is the stay-at-home mom who needs only one thing more than sleep, and that's serious romance and appreciation--something more than flowers on Mother's Day and a once-a-month restaurant dinner with the kids in tow. Let's Be Us Again, which again balances power guitar and pedal steel in the quest for radio airplay, hits that button time and again. The title song doesn't match up to the anthemic pop ballad "Amazed," but it does strike an emotional chord. McDonald and company strive mightily to put the intimacy back into long-term relationships with "That Gets Me," "What I Miss the Most," and "Summertime." Where the album disappoints is in its over-the-top paeans to family, first in the insufferable "Let Them Be Little," then in the nice but unconvincing "Women Rule the World," and finally in the trite "Mr. Mom." It's times like these that Lonestar seems most guilty of pandering, if not treacle. Buyer beware: sugar buzz ahead. --Alanna Nash