- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
What he isn't, however, is an album-oriented artist, and that's clear on Startin' Fires, his fifth studio release. There's a little bit of everything here, and that's part of the problem.
-
His fifth album leans toward slow, thoughtful stuff, like 'Home Sweet Home,' in which Shelton flees the Nashville circus for the comforts of a breadbasket backwater. But he's at his best in funny songs like 'Green.'
-
Blake Shelton is nowhere near as compelling as his girlfriend, Miranda Lambert (who shows up to lend guest vocals to the cheeky 'Bare Skin Rug'), but this sensitive Nashville hunk definitely knows how to craft a sturdy country tune.
-
His relationship [with Miranda Lambert] gives Startin' Fires its verve and spirit, a love-struck recovery from the heartbroken pall that hung over 2007's "Pure BS."
-
A vigorous cross-section of wallop and weepers that revels in its down-home personality.