Wheelhouse
| Brad Paisley
Wheelhouse
Wheelhouse is the ninth studio album by American country music artist Brad Paisley. The album was released on April 9, 2013 by Arista Nashville, with Paisley being the only producer on the album instead of Frank Rogers.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
Brad Paisley’s latest is so well-meaning it’s tempting to forgive how overwrought it is. He’s trying to take country to new places, but even two tracks that subject the South to tough love feel confused
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Taste of Country
A lack of momentum holds back a project that's full of good ideas spaced apart.
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Premier Guitar
Wheelhouse is Paisley’s most pop-sounding album to date, and with that, makes me wonder how long it will be before that vitamin that you stick in the cupcake disappears completely.
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Billboard
Part autobiographical; it closes what is sure to be one of Paisley's most talked about albums of his career.
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The Boston Globe
Brad Paisley can swing for the top of the charts and not lose any respect in the process. On “Wheelhouse,” the country star keeps his contemporary edge sharp with various production tweaks (loops!) and guest appearances while maintaining a grasp on traditions.
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News Ok
Paisley's sound gets more of a pop and hip-hop infusion and considerably less overt traditional country influence, but as he declares in the closing anthem
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The Daily Country
I bought "Wheelhouse" on release day (what good fan didn't) and I must say I was really surprised. At first it was not a good surprise. My initial reaction was "what the heck is this" and "where's Brad Paisley", but Brad Paisley is still in there with well written, heartfelt and often clever lyrics and that guitar playing that only he can do.
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The New York Times
This being country music, internally hidebound and externally perceived as even more so, this veering from script has attracted an unusual amount of attention and sneering.
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Guitar Planet
Ultimately, Wheelhouse casts its net too wide, lurching between utter irreverence and miscalculated sermonising.
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All Music
when Paisley does pull it all together, as he does on "Karate" or the joyous "Beat This Summer" (as effervescent a song as he's ever cut), the results are so good they wind up proving his point that more country singers should step outside their wheelhouse.
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Rough Stock
Whatever it is, I hope that Brad maintains some of the juju found on this record -- the explorations of other genres w/o abandoning Country Music's bedrock instruments -- and reigns himself in a little bit on his next album.
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Country Music Rocks
Wheelhouse is a strong album from start to finish, housing several singles that will make for a great fit on country radio.
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Pop Matters
As fun and pleasurable as many of Paisley’s big-screen pop melodies, sharp guitar hooks and detail-filled songscapes on Wheelhouse can be, those two supposedly challenging songs point out again how intellectually limited Paisley’s wheelhouse is.
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Uproxx
But such complaints seem churlish when it”s clear that he is trying to elevate the level of conversation in country music, as well as lift the overall musical bar. Despite a few pitfalls, that effort should be widely celebrated.
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The Pop Break
Wheelhouse shows that Brad Paisley is still a solid musician willing to push his sound to the limits and that’s more than a country artist can ask for in a constantly changing music landscape.
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Independent
On the excellent Wheelhouse, Brad Paisley tiptoes a fine line between satisfying his core country audience and encouraging them to more adventurous attitudes.
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4,000 Miles To Nashville
Though I have a few objections to content and musical direction, all in all Wheelhouse is a fantastic album, with a great variety of songs and moods, though sometimes relying a little heavily on bad relationships for material.
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Mediaboy Musings
Wheelhouse, while not quite as strong as its predecessor, holds up as a very good collection of songs that occasionally isn't afraid to challenge the boundaries of Paisley's fan's comfort zones.
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News day
"Wheelhouse" would be a lot stronger if Paisley would have sought a little more input on some of these songs and taken a little more advice.
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Spectrum Pulse
So overall, I'd recommend Wheelhouse as an album. Just, you know, skip 'Accidental Racist'. It'll probably go down with 'Ebony and Ivory' as one of the great mistakes in the history of race relations in music, but the rest of the album doesn't deserve to be coloured with that brush.
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Spectrum Culture
On Wheelhouse, Paisley tries to come off as similarly eclectic, but the results are far more inconsistent
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Kurrent Music
I appreciated and continue to appreciate ‘Wheelhouse’ as a fantastic piece of art on a daily basis. You should too.
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Student Life
While I appreciate Brad Paisley trying to write some songs that are out of the usual realm of country, I think he stretched too far on certain tracks, creating very awkward and uncomfortable lyrics and situations. The rest of the album, which consisted of some decent intros and guitar solos, was forgettable.
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Country Standard Time
Paisley maintains his wit and wisdom as he pursues his views on society.
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Sounds like Nashville
Taking a fresh approach to this album found Paisley stretching his boundaries, even as he kept things close – enlisting his band, the Drama Kings, to perform throughout the album and renovating a farmhouse into a recording studio at his Tennessee home.
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Spin
It’s an equal shame most people won’t listen to the 16 other rather good songs on this album. And it’s a damn shame that so many people are discovering a multifaceted artist thanks to his worst song going viral. But there you are. Paisley’s desire to step outside his comfort zone now seems eerily presaged by the figure emblazoned on Wheelhouse’s cover, plunging into the void.
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Keep it country kids
Brad Paisley took some big risks with this, and they paid off. Brad managed to be fresh, interesting, and hip, while being traditional and sticking to what made his fans love him. The sounds are modern and push the limits of the term country at times, but still fall right into Brad's Wheelhouse.
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