Music Review: George Strait still cruisin' in the studio

George Strait, "Love Is Everything" (MCA Nashville)

George Strait is amid a two-year tour before retiring from the road, but new album "Love Is Everything" proves he still has plenty of great new country music in him.

As usual, he proves he can stay contemporary, nicely handling the modern romantic ballad "I Believe," with its orchestrations and organ accents, and the tricky melody of "Give It All We Got Tonight," his current hit.

For all his modern moves, it's on the more traditional cuts that Strait excels, directly contradicting all the current Music Row trends. The steel-guitar-drenched "Blue Melodies" and the delightfully fiddle-driven "I Thought I Heard My Heart Sing" are reminders of how outstanding Strait is at classic country.

The album's only misstep arrives with "Got A Car," a first-person story of young love that would have been better left to a more age-appropriate vocalist.

For the most part, the best of "Love Is Everything" would have stood out on any of his albums in the last 32 years. Which means this veteran may hang up his traveling boots, but his consistency as a recording artist isn't slowing down.

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