Critical reception
Hope on the Rocks received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic , which assigns an averaged score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, based on five reviews. [3] AllMusic 's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the effort "a satisfying set of strong songs". [4] Jewly Hight of American Songwriter wrote that "Beer and partying once again play starring roles on Hope On The Rocks", but that it "comes off as rather objectifying". [5] Joseph Hudak of Country Weekly wrote that the album showed "maturity" over Keith's past works. [6] [12] Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times surmised that "Keith has clearly become a skilled listener, a vital trait for any songwriter — or bartender." [7] Music Is My Oxygen Weekly's Rob Burkhardt found, "Taken together, Hope On the Rocks, while perhaps a tad predictable, still contains the basic building blocks that have helped Toby Keith achieve the success he has today: not just the celebration of booze, but the making of great music, as well." [8] Roughstock's Matt Bjorke wrote that "Hope On The Rocks is a lean 10 track collection and for my money, it's a great mixture of classic Toby Keith sounds", which the album seems "never over-produced or feeling like a record that was made to just be a couple radio singles and filler." He called it a "cohesive album and ranks right up there with Toby's best". [9] Taste of Country 's Billy Dukes criticized Hope on the Rocks as "a loud and sudsy collection of songs about beer, barrooms, heartbreak… and beer. Much like a Saturday night out at your favorite watering hole, it's rowdy and fun, but difficult to remember the next morning." [10] Brian Mansfield of USA Today found that "Most of Keith's latest is a brawny drinker's paradise of horndogs, truckers and whiskey-running outlaws. But those shouldn't distract from its brooding country-pop, especially when Keith flaunts his inner Orbison on the title track". [11]
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