Human: The Double Album

Human the Double Album is a cumbersome title for an album that otherwise flows easily, a record that showcases how Cody Johnson has an understated touch that gives his traditional country a lived-in feel. This is a singer who can hold his own duetting with Willie Nelson on Willie's classic barroom ballad "Sad Songs and Waltzes," a singer who can keep the sentimental "God Bless the Boy (Cori's Song)" from turning saccharine, a singer who swaggers through an open-road anthem like "Known for Loving You" without succumbing to empty braggadocio. Johnson's emotional facility helps enliven a record that sticks to straight-ahead red dirt country, an album that doesn't deviate from familiar country tropes yet stays fresh thanks to Johnson's unfussy, unhurried execution. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine