★★★★★
Prior to their recently announced break-up (click to read) Brooks & Dunn were setting about releasing this retrospective album #1's...and Then Some. Somehow, given the recent news that the duo would cease to be after their 2010 tour, this album has taken on a higher profile than folks might've expected it, basically the duo's third "greatest hits" album, to have...
- roughstock.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
On their debut album, Brand New Man,singer-songwriters Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn sound imitative butalso smart enough to figure out exactly what the yahoo faction of thecountry audience wants to hear. Their No. 1 hit, "Brand New Man," agentle country-rocker, manages to mix almost all of the stereotypicalSouthern comforts and fears: It's a hellfire vocal laid over a lyricabout baptism, beer joints, and rebirth through a good woman's love.There's even the famous Hank Williams Sr...
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
On Hillbilly Deluxe, their first LP pairing with producer Tony Brown (George Strait, Lyle Lovett), Brooks & Dunn take it all back to the honky-tonks in perfectly drawn vignettes of Saturday-night sin and swagger. Ronnie Dunn, the king of neon soul, hot-wires the tension between heartache and hooking up, especially on "Play Something Country." That megahit, like the rest of the album, reinforces the duo's position as the premier practitioners of the sawdust serenade.
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
BROOKS & DUNN Borderline (Arista) With their 1991 debut, Brooksand Dunn brought a freshness back to country-rock, only to lapseinto second-rate formula on their sophomore album. On thefourth outing Borderline, they hit and miss, veering from sturdy ballads toinfectious dance songs with cliched lyrics about lonelytruckers, bored housewives, and drinking-her-off-my-mind. Onehigh spot: a remake of the vaguely calypsonian "My Maria." B-
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
Sound: Brooks & Dunn, the world's most successful duo of all time, hands down, is going out with a BANG! They might be breaking up, but they're ending it big! Besides being a collection of all of their past #1s, this album also includes 2 previosly un-released tracks: Indian Summer, a great song about desire too early, is their 1st release off the album. Their 2nd brings way more energy into their finale. Honky-Tonk Stomp features Billy Gibbons, the legendary singer for ZZ Top...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2009-11-15
★★★★★
Before the days of Montgomery Gentry or Big and Rich, there were Brooks and Dunn, popwise neohillbillies keeping the cause of the good ol' nice guy alive in the Age of Shania. The pair have said they're retiring, but this best-of proves the almost metronomic consistency of their rolling, revved-up honky-tonk...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-09-12
★★★★★
If Brooks & Dunn are to be believed (and their many multiplatinum albums suggestthey are), folks in Cowboy Town don't do much besides lovin', drinkin',and salutin' the grand ol' flag. Luckily, the duo are one of country'shardest-rocking acts, so even if the themes on their 11th studio CD area bit predictable, their muscular riffs and handsome vocal harmoniesgive the material a boot-scooting vibrancy belying their elder-statesmenstatus...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Brooks & Dunn have been compared to any number of country-rock
duos of the past, including Loggins & Messina and the Bellamy
Brothers. In fact, they're more like the Nashville version of Hall &
Oates. Like those two chameleons at their peak, Brooks & Dunn are
astute craftsmen who recycle bits of numerous styles into their own
homogenized milk...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Brooks & Dunn ought to kiss Montgomery Gentry's hillbilly shoes.Losing their perennial CMA award to the Kentucky upstarts in 2000 made the boot-scootin' twins wake up from the torpor of 1999's "Tight Rope." The best-selling duo in country music's history did some soul searching and came up with three No. 1 hits for 2001's"Steers & Stripes." But for Red Dirt Road, they dug even deeper,using autobiography, the musical influences of their teens, andenergized roots-rock production...
- ew.com
2009-06-12