Country artist Christian Kane released his debut label album, “The House Rules” on Tuesday, December 7, 2010; and he didn’t fail to impress! The House Rules shows off his voice and his songwriting, and has it’s mix of Country-Rock and even some Ballads. It has been warned as explicit for some of it’s mature themes and words.
The collection begins with the rock lead single and title track “The House Rules”. Written by Kane, this song tells of a place where you can “let it go” when you need a “little more than just the radio”. A heavy upbeat song, this song isn’t recommended for children because of some of lines that you wouldn’t expect to hear anywhere besides a southern bar.
It follows with “Something’s Gotta Give”, a more mellow song in which the singer dreams about leaving his current uneventful live and to move on to something better. Very well written, this song is sure to be a hit. Next, it continues with “Thinking of you”, a sad song about a love leaving. This is one of my personal favorites on this album.
“Whiskey In Mind” is another heavy Country-Rock song, and another one that might not be appropriate for your kids. “American Made” is an up-beat song bragging about his “American Made” girl “Raised right here in the USA”. Great beat, great song.
Another notable song from the collection is “Making Circles”, one of the few songs not written by Christian himself. This song is tagged with a Parental Advisory and is listed as Explicit at all the MP3 download stores. The reason for this is the frequent use of the F word. The song itself is a slow sorrowful ballad about a failing love, which keeps going round and round. The tune is amazing, and is one of the better ones I’ve heard in while. The lyrics are mostly very impressive, but I don’t know why the writers felt the need for the F word in every chorus.
The album ends off with the song “Fast Car”, a ballad similar to “Something’s Gotta Give”; it’s another song about being bored with his current life, and dreaming of moving on. The lyrics and tune are well written and are woven together perfectly, and you rarely get that in a song these days. Too bad Kane didn’t write this one…
So overall, this album is a success in my mind. There are a mix of songs that are good and some that could have been better. But the ones that are good are good enough, that they outweigh the rest. “The House Rules” does a fine job of showing what Christian Kane has to offer, and I expect to hear a lot more from him in the future.
