Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing

Personnel: Keith Urban (vocals, guitar, E-bow, bouzouki, mandolin, piano, bass guitar, percussion); Ronnie Dunn (vocals); Tom Bukovac (guitar); Rami Jaffee (keyboards); Jimmie Lee Sloas (bass guitar); Chris McHugh (drums, programming).The fair-haired Aussie who came across the pond with guitar in hand to show Nashville how it's done, Keith Urban became a country music phenomenon in the early 2000s. Like his contemporary Brad Paisley, Urban combined songs with a broad-based appeal and fiery fretboard skills to gain a wide audience. LOVE, PAIN & THE WHOLE CRAZY THING finds Urban refining his approach ever further, to achieve the perfect marriage of pop, rock, and country.Electronic-sounding beats, soaring string arrangements, and searing lead guitar mesh seamlessly with banjo, steel guitar, and mandolin throughout the album. The amalgamation of '70s/'80s widescreen pop-rock a la Elton John and Bryan Adams with contemporary country sounds surprisingly natural here. From the airborne "Shine" to the down-and-dirty "Raise the Barn" (with a guest turn from Brooks & Dunn's Ronnie Dunn), Urban never falters. Whether the reason lies chiefly in his guy-next-door persona, hook-heavy songcraft, or instrumental deftness, LOVE, PAIN has platinum written all over it.