Luke Combs
kind of half-smirks on the cover of
Growin' Up
, but on
Gettin' Old
, its rush-released companion, he looks deadly serious. The shift in presentation is superficial because, by any other measure,
simply offers more of what
delivered -- a whole lot more, really. Boasting 18 songs,
is nearly a half-hour longer than
, a substantial increase in size that is impossible to ignore because
has no narrative flow; it merely has one song pile up after another. The lack of a narrative thrust isn't necessarily a hindrance as it's clear that
Combs
' intent is to give the people what they want -- namely, a record that stays in a particularly smooth, reflective mood for over an hour. Occasionally, he pumps up a hook or melody, sometimes he emphasizes a bit of twang or fingerpicking, yet these are ultimately accents to burnished, mellow grooves distinguished by his soulful guttural growl. His cover of
Tracy Chapman
's modern folk standard "Fast Car" is less a testament to his interpretive prowess than it is to how the rest of the album is handsome, polished craft, songs that hit their marks with the same precision
gives to his singing. The sharp, skillful execution turns
into an appealingly professional record, one that's almost slick enough to quash nagging suspicions that this is nothing more than an alluringly polished piece of product. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine