Pat Green - Wave On Wave (CD)

All Music Guide

On his eight album, Texas frat party darling, Pat Green takes a giant step ijntyo the big time to detrimental effect. Green may make a lot of his Texas raising and his Austin base--as well as his record setting Houston concerrts--but he sounds more like a Nash Vegas hack every day. Wave ON Wave, the title track and single is proof in the pudding that Green's rootsy, humble, humorous, Robert Earl Keene derived style has gone the way of a cool breeze in Austin in August. There is so little to disctinguish not only his sound but his lyrics from those being written by the Nash Vegas top ten club that whatever made him so uniquely "Texas," has all but withered and died. Contrast Green with songwriters such as Troy Campbell, Mary Gautheir and Billy Joe Shaver and the distinction becomes painful. Wave on Wave is generic, whitebread, country rock without any memorable songs and little to no personal identity-other than a singing voice that is reminiscent of Keene's. Green needs to go back to t...he woodshed and seek out that reckless country music MUse that gave him the life he enjoys and beg its forgiveness before churning out anything else. - Thom Jurek, All Music Guide Read more Less