Kid Rock - Rock 'N' Roll Jesus Review

Kid Rock has always been one of those artists that I just don't get.  I don't get how he's sold so many records, I don't get his appeal, and I don't get how a dude supposedly so talented seems to write every other song about how great he is and yet can't write a decent song about anything else.

Oh, sure, he tries on his newest album, Rock 'N' Roll Jesus.  He wants you to believe there are two sides to Kid Rock: the brash, confident, overhyped superstar, and the down home country boy who just wants the simple things in life.  Nevermind that one contradicts the other; if you're listening to Kid Rock, you shouldn't be thinking in the first place.

And I guess there's nothing wrong with him once in a while in terms of mindless rock music.  His mashup here of Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama with new lyrics works better than it has any right to, and just the fact that you hear there was a mashup of those two songs and it wasn't a horrible disaster is a positive I suppose.  In fact, when combined with the following track, Roll On, Rock actually almost makes you believe that this album will be different.

And then you get to the chorus of the first single, So Hott, where he proclaims his desire to "fuck you like I'm never gonna see you again."  The comparisons of this song to an AC/DC number are way off base.  First off, AC/DC never wrote a riff this boring, and second, at least AC/DC used clever double entendres to dress up their songs about sex.  Rock's not even trying.  This is even more evident on Sugar, his one foray back into his rap rock roots.  He brags about fucking "hot pussy," which he's been bragging about in various singles since his breakthrough in 1999.

It's this dichotomy that brings up Rock's biggest problem as he makes a play for critical respect with songs like Amen.  For every song where he's singing about real problems and real heartache, he's writing two about how great he is and how much sex he has.  His further forays into country are also awful.  The one thing he has going for him is that he imitates true blue old school country, but sadly, he can't write a decent lyric. 

Quite frankly, Rock would be better served giving up the act that he's actually trying to mature as a lyricist and just write songs about how great he is.  His audience seems to lap that stuff up, and most of them could care less if he ever writes a decent serious song.  In the meantime, if you've never been a fan of "The Kid" before this, this won't convert you either.  Stay away.

2 stars.