Description
Kid Rock's new album, "Rock n Roll Jesus," is a mix of southern rock and gospel music. The album's title song is about Jesus, and the bonus track "Lowlife (Living the Highlife)" is about Kid Rock's life. The album's other songs are about different contradictions in Kid Rock's life.
Kid Rock maintains a remarkable propensity for wearing his contradictions on his sleeve, and more than anything he's previously released,
Rock n Roll Jesus finds fuel in unresolved opposites. Is he a hard-core chauvinist ("Half Your Age") or a would-be gentlemen ("When U Love Someone")? Is he a God-fearing everyman ("Blue Jeans and a Rosary") or a bohemian hero ("So Hott")? These questions are nothing new, even if the album at hand takes them to freshly delirious extremes. Ever since he first began shedding his rap/rock posture to be the next Ted Nugent, Kid Rock has constructed his public persona out of full-frontal ambivalence: race, class, sex, religion, money, whatever it takes. This album's bookends--the title song and "bonus" track, "Lowlife (Living the Highlife)"--demonstrate all this irreconcilable nonsense in no uncertain terms, but all his polar wobbling is at least stabilized by a firm commitment to southern-styled rock, tinged at times with gospel, blues, a lingering need to rap ("Sugar"), and a rare, soul-fed instrumental jambalaya ("New Orleans"). In the end, Kid Rock may be a remarkable self-promoter, but a musical Messiah he is not.
--Jason Kirk
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