Bullets in the Gun

Last updated
Bullets in the Gun
TKBulletsintheGun.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 5, 2010 (2010-10-05)
Genre Country
Length36:10
Label Show Dog-Universal Music
Producer Toby Keith
Toby Keith chronology
American Ride
(2009)
Bullets in the Gun
(2010)
Clancy's Tavern
(2011)
Singles from Bullets in the Gun
  1. "Trailerhood"
    Released: June 28, 2010
  2. "Bullets in the Gun"
    Released: September 27, 2010
  3. "Somewhere Else"
    Released: February 28, 2011

Bullets in the Gun is the fourteenth studio album by American country music artist Toby Keith. It was released on October 5, 2010 by Show Dog-Universal Music. [1] The album produced three singles with "Trailerhood", the title track, and "Somewhere Else". "Trailerhood" peaked at number 19 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, while the title track and "Somewhere Else" both reached number 12. This was Keith's first studio album to not produce a single Top 10 hit on the US country charts.

Contents

Background

In an interview with Billboard , Keith talked about the recording for Bullets in the Gun, saying ""I'm in a great place right now, I probably wrote 40 or 50 songs in the last year and the songs are getting more and more happy. I did some movies, too, but now I'm just kicking back." [2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic (76/100) [3]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [4]
Billboard (positive) [5]
The Boston Globe (positive) [6]
Country Weekly Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Entertainment Weekly B [8]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [9]
The New York Times (mixed) [10]
Roughstock(favorable) [11]
The Washington Post (positive) [12]

Upon its release, Bullets in the Gun received generally positive reviews from most music critics. [3] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on 6 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". [3]

Bill Friskics-Warren of The Washington Post complimented the tracks on the release, saying "There isn't a weak track on the record, and most of the songs [...] are pretty terrific". [12] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album 4½ out of 5 stars and called it "a lean, tight record", stating "Bullets in the Gun winds up being the Toby Keith album with the lightest touch since 2006’s White Trash with Money ." [4] Matt Bjorke with Roughstock commented on the album, saying "Bullets in the Gun is an interesting album and it feels like a joyful mixture of songs about different stages of relationships and life" and called it "Keith’s best album of at least the last five years". [11] Gary Graff with Billboard Magazine gave a favorable review of the album, saying "It's full of shoot-from-the- hip cleverness". [5]

Jessica Phillips with Country Weekly gave it three stars, commented saying that "the album [is packed] with songs meant to heal (or at least dull) a broken heart". [7] Jon Caramanica with The New York Times referred to Bullets in the Gun as "[Keith's] most scattershot album to date; a jumble of attitudes and tactics" and said "[he] is singing without conviction on songs that are mere archetypes and lack any of his signature gestures". [10]

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number one on both the US Billboard 200 chart and Top Country albums chart, selling 71,000 copies in its first week of release. It's the smallest debut at number one since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking the chart in May 1991. [13] In its second week of release, the album dropped to number nine on the Billboard 200 selling 30,000 copies. [14] In its third week of release, the album fell to number twenty one on the Billboard 200, selling 17,923 copies. [15] As of the chart dated May 7, 2011, the album has sold 323,880 copies in the US. [16]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Bullets in the Gun" Toby Keith, Rivers Rutherford 4:16
2."Somewhere Else"Keith, Bobby Pinson 3:06
3."Trailerhood"Keith2:53
4."In a Couple of Days"Keith, Pinson3:46
5."Think About You All of the Time"Keith3:44
6."Kissin' in the Rain"Keith, Pinson3:55
7."Drive it on Home"Keith, Pinson3:22
8."Ain't Breakin' Nothin'"Keith, Pinson3:58
9."Is That All You Got"Keith, Scotty Emerick, Dean Dillon 3:35
10."Get Out of My Car"Keith, Pinson3:30
Total length:36:05
Deluxe Edition
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
11."11 Months And 29 Days (live)" Johnny Paycheck 4:44
12."I've Been a Long Time Leaving (But I'll Be a Long Time Gone) (live)" Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller 6:08
13."Chug-a-Lug (live)"Roger Miller2:59
14."Sundown (live)" Gordon Lightfoot 4:34

Personnel

Charts

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References

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