★★★★★
If someone had handed me an unmarked CD with this music on it, I would've sworn that this was some kind of very well-produced parody of Southern culture and Tea Party politics. It is quite simply a pure distillation of left wing America's deepest fears about the right wing, and it only confirms that those fears are well founded as it swims in rampant nationalism, xenophobia and ignorance and dresses up oppression as freedom...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-08-13
★★★★★
It's tempting to get either enthused or offended, depending on your political perspective, by the politically outspoken nature of Hank Williams Jr.'s new Old School New Rules CD. If you're, say, a Tea Party supporter, this recording will, indeed, be your cup of conservative tea. However, if you voted for Barack Obama last election, this music will amount to one bitter elixir. No matter how it hits you intellectually, though, there's no arguing that Hank sounds engaged...
- www.roughstock.com
2012-07-23
★★★★★
Hank Williams, Jr. overcame many obstacles early in his career, particularly the one where folks wanted him to be like his daddy, to become a massively successful singer/songwriter in his own right. "127 Rose Avenue" is Hank Jr.' s first release of all-new material since 2003's "I'm One Of You...
- roughstock.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
With new male vocalists scaling the charts, Hank Williams Jr. has lost much of his prominence as one of country's Big Bucks. He's also lost hiscreative edge, or so it seems on Maverick, his first effort for therevamped Capricorn Records. Apart from one of his father's tunes,"Low Down Blues," the album contains only two memorable songs and ismostly made up of such dumb stuff as "Fax Me a Beer," the musicalequivalent of Metamucil: high-impact filler guaranteed to move thingsright along...
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
The age of AIDS hasn't left him untouched--he takes his women one at a time and indulges in telephone sex. But usually Junior comes on like such a wild-ass that you can only tell him from the average rapper by his primitive sense of rhythm and his failure to mention the size of his dick...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-17
★★★★★
How embarrassing--when I let my guard down this flattering sampler catches me thinking that maybe the CMA has a point. The "Ain't Misbehavin'" isn't gratuitous, the miracle-of-science duet with his dad isn't dead, the star-studded "Mind Your Own Business" swings like a mother, the autobiography is good shtick, and the country songs are good country songs--"This Ain't Dallas" is a classic of the TV age. And though "Young Country" disses punks, I'll trade for r&b even up.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-17
★★★★★
Since "To Love Somebody" isn't exactly Hank's kind of song, I guess he disavowed the Ray Ruff-produced side of this. On the other hand, "Family Tradition" (guess who that's about) leads off the other side, and it is exactly Hank's kind of song. Exactly. That's not so great either.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
At times his son-of-an-outlaw obsession is worse than shtick, but here he does justice to the formula. Two candid songs about women tell you more about his sexism than he knows himself, two others explain why he's in that mood, the covers from Gregg Allman and George Jones define his parameters, and "The Conversation"--with Waylon Guess Who, about Guess Who, Sr.--doesn't make you gag once.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Having survived his brush with death, his defection to rock, and his obsession with his daddy, whom he now outsells, Williams rests on his laurels as professional braggart and secondhand showbiz legend. He's one of the few country artists who goes gold at least partly because he's not really country--like rock both '50s and post-Allmans, country's just grist for a macho vaudeville that on this album blows even harder than usual. The tip-off's "Bocephus," a return to unabashed me-me-me...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
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