Comin' on Strong

1	Hot Mama 3:20
2	Comin' on Strong 3:02
3	Then Came the Night 4:38
4	I'd Sure Hate to Breakdown Here 4:01
5	Missing You 5:15
6	One of Those Nights 3:48
7	Untamed 3:49
8	Then I Wake Up 4:09
9	One Nightstand 3:46
10	Baby's Gone 3:15
11	Rough & Ready 3:08

Barnes & Noble

When it comes to adult love, Trace Adkins isn't nearly as lubricious as was Conway Twitty, the king of the style; rather, Adkins offers a darker view of an overactive libido and its ensuing consequences. Which is not to suggest he doesn't have some fun along the way: The rock-hard album opener, "Hot Mama," finds him coming on to a mature woman whose extra years have only enhanced her sex appeal. But the heart of the album is a clutch of songs that look deep into the dark heart of love gone awry or simply too long denied. "Missing You," a ballad rife with steady thumping tension, recounts a working stiff's restless countdown until the moment he can be reunited with the woman he loves, its ascending chorus evoking his agonizing yearning. Fiddles, pungent electric guitar lines, and pounding drums set the scene for "I'd Hate to Break Down Here," which describes a car sputtering while metaphorically evoking the plaintive cry of a man trying to keep his soul together at the end of a love affair. On the subject of regret, though, nothing tops the clever, mid-tempo treatise "One Nightstand," which sets a mood of abject sorrow with piano, strings, and acoustic guitar, a perfect backdrop for the narrator's tale of a wanton affair and its family-shattering aftermath. Music with some meat on the bone, this is good work by one of country's reliable hit-makers. David McGee

All Music Guide

Trace Adkins had reached his midthirties by the time his debut album, Dreamin' Out Loud, was released in 1996. By the time his fifth disc, Comin' on Strong, appeared in 2003, he was over 40. So, it is perhaps appropriate that the overall tone of the lyrics in the 11 songs written for him is one of romantic maturity. That starts with the leadoff track and first single, the up-tempo "Hot Mama," in which a husband reassures his wife that she remains attractive to him, even though she can no longer fit into the jeans she wore at 17. "Hot Mama" has a frisky appeal and, with its erotically charged tag line, "You wanna?" a novelty quality, as does the album's closer, "Rough & Ready," a tongue twister with a Western Swing flavor that details a particular type of country male's taste: "Cold beer/Hot wings/Wranglers/Skoal ring," and so on. The nine songs in between are the usual Nashville product, songs about love lost and found. Adkins' distinctive yet traditional baritone brings out the best in this material, whether leaning on the metaphor of the ballad "I'd Sure Hate to Break Down Here" or reflecting on the physical pleasure of "One of Those Nights." Comin' on Strong is at its best right at the beginning, and there isn't another song as impressive as "Hot Mama." But it's a sturdy collection of reasonably good country songs given effective interpretations by a veteran talent. William Ruhlmann