One way for an artist to win my heart is to go against what's expected. It's so easy, once you have a following and a little fame, to give up whatever artistic dreams you had for yourself and ride the wave of success. The artists that I most admire are the ones who use their fame and the major label recording budget to fund the "vanity" project, especially if it's not exactly the most mainstream of projects.
I can't say that I dislike Dierks Bentley's music, but I wasn't that big of a fan before this album. He's had some tremendously strong singles and a few really good albums, but lately it seemed like he was regressing instead of progressing. The last studio album he produced felt like one great big retread through his greatest hits instead of pushing, growing, and challenging the listener. In a genre like country music, status quo seems to be the thing to do, so I didn't expect a complete 180 like Up on the Ridge.
But don't be fooled, there are still pop references and tinges of his style on here. I'm not a U2 fan by any stretch, but Pride (In the Name of Love) really fits the sound of the record. Bentley recruits genre vet Del McCoury for the soaring hook, handling the textured verses himself. It's a well layered bit of tempo with a whole lot of strings and smoky harmonies, an expressive and somber ode to strength. Bentley is extremely believable with his golden croon, helping to make this melodically powerful track with an impressive instrumental breakdown one of the better tracks on an already strong collection. Featuring additional verses from a stunningly raspy Miranda Lambert and a typically ornery Jamey Johnson, passionate Bad Angel is the song written about fighting temptation and the vices of everyday life, thanks to the "bad angel" on your other shoulder. It's deceptively simple, a whiskey-soaked barroom-ready midtempo with a whole lot of confidence. Typically, a song about how much you drink or gamble would reek of being desperate or trying to fit into a certain expected image of what a country musician is, but each performer really sells the intent and torment of the song. Draw Me a Map sounds more like a traditional Dierks Bentley song, just stripped down. With some pillowy soft ad libs from Alison Krauss and one of the "prettiest" melodies on the album (the guitars and mandolin are a little more refined), this romantic ballad doesn't feel the need to be bombastic in its declarations of love. It simply seeks to understand, to compromise, and to join together, a notably sensitive sentiment that fits the understated vibe of the song quite well.
Down in the Mine closes the album in a stunning fashion. I may just connect to it a little more because the area I'm from is heavy in coal mining, but it's a chilling account of the journey of a coal miner. From day one to the end of their life, you get a sense of the entrapment and suffocation that is felt from Bentley's plaintive storytelling. The song builds as it goes along, from a singular acoustic guitar to a more fleshed out ballad, coming to a tear jerking crescendo. Foot tapping first single Up on the Ridge has slowly been making its presence known on country radio, a surprising move as it sounds like nothing that currently gets significant play. Incredibly heavy on imagery and rural ambiance (it captures the mood of a typical night in the south quite well), it has this strange deviousness to the song that makes it initially sound very dark. It works well in terms of keeping the track sonically interesting and setting the tone for the record as a whole. Out of all the tracks on the record, it's one of the ones most far removed from his past material, so to see him be able to fit so comfortably here is a revelation. You're Dead to Me doesn't fully work for me because it never picks a side. With something of this lyrical content, it needs to be an extreme; either this should have been startlingly sinister with a very creepy atmosphere or it should have been a total comedy listen. It feels like it tries to just be this good natured, aw shucks type of listen, which may work on a lot of other Bentley songs but not necessarily here. It's not an awful song or even a bad song, necessarily; it just kind of wilts standing next to most of the material on Up on the Ridge and doesn't make itself a truly necessary or effective listen.
Dierks Bentley has produced one of the best records of 2010, regardless of genre. Instead of the hokey frat boy bravado, faux Jimmy Buffett island music, and lazy list-of-country-stuff ballads that seems to be the norm for most mainstream male country musicians these days, we get a powerful collection of well written and solidly executed material. The collaborations show knowledge of the genre that helps the album's case as being genuine vs. being a way to save face after his last album didn't go gold. It may not be perfect but it shows that there's an artist in Dierks Bentley who is just aching to get out and I know I can't wait until he shows what he can really do.
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