White Trash With Money : Toby Keith : Review : Rolling Stone

For all its boot-in-your-ass patriotism and Bill O'Reilly meatheadedness, Toby Keith's 2003 red-state manifesto, Shock'n Y'All, had an upside: It made Keith interesting, briefly. White Trash With Money, Keith's eleventh album, is an arena-ready collection of jokey rockers and sad-cowboy ballads that's as immaculate and assembly-line sturdy as a new SUV. The album kicks off with its lead single, "Get Drunk and Be Somebody," which sounds like a T.G.I. Fridays jingle rewritten for frat boys; from there Keith drops some stale clambake country ("Grain of Salt") and a cheeseball tear-jerker about being unable to afford a suitable present for his girl's birthday ("Brand New Bow"). On the album's one political cut, "Ain't No Right Way," Keith wonders, "How could someone vote to take prayer from our classrooms right when we need prayer the most?" Considering White Trash's standard-issue honky-tonk, he'll have to try a lot harder to provoke listeners outside of his fan base.