Quick Reviews - Seeing Red

I had a three hour drive today and that means I have three quick album mini-reviews. 1) Toby Keith "Hope On the Rocks" -- when Toby stays away from his bombastic jingoism, he can be really clever and good. This album is really clever and good. Really a strong effort from Toby. 2) Lady Antebellum "On This Winter's Night" -- if elevator music gets your blood pumping, then this one's for you. Somehow Lady A makes Christmas uninspiring. 3) Taylor Swift "Red" -- this is what you'd expect from Taylor; good production and strong writing. In 16 songs Taylor gets dumped and/or breaks up 15 times, with the final song having her on the rebound (after, assumingly, getting dumped and/or breaking up). (Hey, Taylor, maybe -- ummmmm -- the problem is *you*???) The album is heavy pop production that is marketed as country but makes Adele sound like Tammy Wynette. Some of the stuff is unpoppish enough to be considered kinda country (if you squint your ears enough); it's not a bad album, just not a country album. How does something like this get marketed as country? Oh, yeah, her label is Big Machine, run by the country music antichrist, Scott Borchetta.