Toby Crabel

With a disclaimer stating that he only had a year to write the songs for his sophomore album (while he had a "lifetime" to write those for his first), Toby Keith introduces us to his second effort, Boomtown. Not to worry: he pulls off a successful follow-up to his hit-heavy debut. His songwriting has matured, and his vocals still stand out as one of the predominant male voices of contemporary country. Keith straddles the wall between traditional and pop, and he maintains a steady balance. Opening with his number one song "Who's That Man," Keith immediately packs a traditional country wallop. His songs tell stories about everyday life and working-class people, and the serious issues they face like divorce, adultery, teenage angst, aging, love, and life in an oil boomtown.

"Drunk Americans," the first single from Toby Keith's 18th studio album, appeared in October 2014 but the accompanying 35 MPH Town didn't show up until a year later, a good indication that the single didn't perform as well as expected. Despite its alcoholic title – something of a tradition for Keith in the new millennium, where all seven singles subsequent to 2011's "Red Solo Cup" bar one have booze on the brain – "Drunk Americans" did suggest Keith was looking to break away from the slight electronic sheen of 2013's Drinks After Work, as it was the work of songwriters Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally, and Bob DiPiero, a trio who represented a post-bro country vanguard.

Maybe it's just the times but Toby Keith has had drinking on his mind, calling his 2011 album Clancy's Tavern, which rode up the charts on the back of the boozy hit "Red Solo Cup" and now, for its sequel, Keith serves up Hope on the Rocks, an album where he finds his way to "Cold Beer Country" and complains that he hasn't had a drink all day. He also admits that "I Like Girls Who Drink Beer," the confession coming as no great surprise and, truth be told, there are no great surprises throughout Hope on the Rocks. Keith has whittled the album down to his basics, finding space for only three love songs – the heartbroken "Haven't Seen the Last of You," "Missed You Just Right," which has airs of an arena-country crossover, and the bittersweet "You Ain't Alone," all arriving in the back half of the album, helping to accentuate the album's party-ready atmosphere.

Toby Driver is the driving force behind sonic experimenters Kayo Dot, and his colleague on this outing is musician, writer, and filmmaker Nick Hudson. They got together in February in New York for an outing to see Mr Bungle, and decided to make full use of their time by booking some studio time with engineer/producer Marc Urselli. Black Feather Under Your Tongue is the result on 90 minutes of recording, with a deliberate aim for spacious minimalism, all totally improvised. Efficiency at work, I think!

Toby Keith jumped from Mercury to DreamWorks after his fourth album, Dream Walkin' and How Do You Like Me Now?!, his first effort for his new album, finds the singer/songwriter revived and refreshed, shaking loose some of the sleepiness of his two albums for Mercury. Not that he's given up slower tunes – he still has a keen ear for sensitive love songs and heartbreak sagas, manifesting in both the light, sweet "Heart to Heart (Stelen's Song)" and power ballads like "When Love Fades" – but there is a bit of a showy defiance here, best heard on the hit title track, "Die with Your Boots On" and the rocking "Country Comes to Town."

Twenty years into his career, the inevitable happened: Toby Keith started to slide down the charts. He'd had slow patches before – when he moved from A&M to Dreamworks at the end of the '90s, he had trouble getting into the Top 10 – but the success of 2011's Clancy's Tavern and its accompanying hits "Made in America," "Red Solo Cup," and "Beers Ago" wound up seeming like a fluke once 2012's Hope on the Rocks stalled on the charts. Confronted with a possible decline in his fortune, Keith takes action on Drinks After Work, his 17th album in 20 years.