Sawyer Brown has not lasted into the ’90s by being unwilling to adapt.
The group’s new CD Drive Me Wild (Curb) seems mellower than the group’s partying image. And lead singer and principal songwriter Mark Miller seems to have gotten rangier, especially on his vocals’ low end.
Another seeming departure is the cheerfully blasphemous novelty 800 Pound Jesus, which seems apt to raise a few religious eyebrows. The band tries to make amends soon afterward with a couple of serious efforts including Soul Searchin’, an up-tempo but reflective lyric about the need to find time to consider the hereafter.
Many of the lyrics here, though, in keeping with the band’s history, tend to be light and dance-oriented, the most ear-pleasing example of which is the frenetic All Wound Up, which was written by co-producer Mac McAnally. As has often been the case with this band, the emphasis seems to be on staying on the radio rather than on saying a whole lot.
