Mountains

1	Mountains 3:56
2	Nothing to Prove 3:56
3	Long Lost Smile 3:55
4	Thought It Was You 3:42
5	Hey God 3:46
6	I Wanna Do It for You 4:20
7	Cowboy Girl 3:32
8	What She Had to 3:49
9	One of Those Nights 4:13
10	Careful Where You Kiss Me 3:20
11	Always in the Band 4:02

Barnes & Noble

Rascal Flatts have been stealing a lot of Lonestar's country group harmony thunder, but the latter remain the group with the most chart-topping singles on their resume. Mountains is as fine a long-player as lead singer/songwriter Richie McDonald and his mates have delivered in their nine-album history, abundant with deeply felt vocalizing, stirring arrangements, and sensitive, literate songs addressing real-world issues in a smart way. A forcefully strummed mandolin, teamed with a subtle but insistent fiddle line, introduces the title track, which should become a Lonestar classic. Exhorting grit and discipline, McDonald gives it an emotional but impressively restrained reading, disdaining bombastic emoting in favor of a more subtle report that underscores the magnitude of the protagonists' courage in the face of daunting odds. "Long Lost Smile" celebrates a woman's tearing away from her life with a no-good drunk of a husband, in the process giving the well-worn phrase "You go, girl!" a whole new coat of paint. On a similar note, the driving country rocker "What She Had To" mixes the bitter and the sweet, as an abused mom absconds with her children but finds tough sledding elsewhere and so moves on, still searching for stability and calm. On a lighter note, the propulsive "Cowboy Girl" and the funky, slightly naughty "Careful Where You Kiss Me" kick out the jams with sizzling guitar-fiddle interplay and tight, affecting harmonies. It appears the object in Lonestar's rearview mirror is Rascal Flatts. David McGee

All Music Guide

Lonestar's 2005 album Coming Home may not have been as big a hit as its 2004 predecessor, Let's Be Us Again, but it was still a hit, so there was no reason for the quartet to change their formula on their seventh album, 2006's Mountains. If anything, on this album the group takes fewer risks than ever, smoothing out any remaining rough edges and keeping things clean, to the point where they even warn their lover to be "Careful Where You Kiss Me." It may be safe and measured, but Lonestar never claimed to be roughnecks, so this isn't something unexpected; rather, they're just following their natural, logical path. And if unsympathetic ears might find that path a little dull, longtime fans will undoubtedly find it comforting, since Lonestar delivers the goods as promised every time out. Of course, there's a fine line separating reliability and predictability -- one is reassuring, the other is repetitive -- and Mountains may come a little too close to the latter. The band sounds as friendly as ever, covering all their by-now familiar themes of love and family and faith, but beneath the crisp, immaculate production, not many songs take hold. It all glides by smoothly, easing from one earnest midtempo cut to another. There isn't much to distinguish one song from the other -- the uptempo tunes never break a sweat, so they don't feel all that different from the numerous love ballads here -- but the execution is so expert and the group so sweet-natured, it's hard to complain, particularly if you're a fan just looking for another dose of Lonestar. And that's what the group serves up with a smile on Mountains -- a good-hearted, utterly professional, utterly predictable record, one that's certain to please fans without managing to bother anybody else. Stephen Thomas Erlewine