Different Man

Kane Brown bookends Different Man with "Bury Me in Georgia" and "Dear Georgia," two deliberate odes to his home state that are hardly the only sentimental tunes on his third album. Brown has been in the business of opening his heart since his eponymous 2016 debut, but where that record hinted at deeper, complex emotions, the singer operates on a grander scale on Different Man, a record released in 2022 when Kane Brown is unquestionably one of the biggest stars in country music. The album functions as a convincing argument that Brown earned his fame by blending country tradition with the fluid genre-bending of the streaming age. Its often easy to hear Browns country roots. He sings with a pronounced twang, he tips his hat to Alan Jackson on "Like I Love Country Music" -- a song whose very title is a salute to his chosen genre -- and he sings about love, alcohol, home, and family in equal measure. Reduced to its basics, Different Man seems like an old-fashioned country album but it plays like smooth, slick pop as it slides from the gleaming melodies of "See You Like I Do" to the mellow "Thank God," a duet with his wife Katelyn Brown. When the tempo and volume increase, as they do on "One Mississippi," its with the insistence of a rocking country throwback, only given a digital polish that makes the track a canny hybrid of old and new sounds. If Brown only synthesized the past and present on Different Man, itd have a distinct pulse, but he also glides through a number of different styles ranging from the beach-ready breezes of "Drunk or Dreamin" and the stark, spartan ballad "Whiskey Sour" to the 80s throwback vibes of "Nothin Id Change." By dabbling in all these styles, Brown gives the distinct impression hes attempting to please all the people all of the time, an eagerness that can get slightly wearying on an album that, at 17 tracks, feels longer than its hour but is quite endearing when heard in doses. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine