Black

Personnel: Jonathan Yudkin (strings).
Audio Mixer: F. Reid Shippen.
Recording information: Arlyn Studios, Austin, TX; Blackbird Studios, Nashville, TN; Buckjump Studios, New Orleans, LA; Monster Island Studio, Nashville, TN; My Place, Franklin, TN; Ocean Way Studios, Nashville, TN; Southern Ground Nashville, Nashville, TN; The Red Room, Nashville, TN.
Photographer: Jim Wright .
Arranger: Jonathan Yudkin.
On the album art of Black, his eighth album, Dierks Bentley appears in a seemingly foreign atmosphere for the country singer: the stylish, sexy streets of a city at night. This change in setting -- previously, Bentley has been seeing picking on a porch, grinning in an alley, staring into the sunset, and chilling with a dog -- doesn't necessarily suggest a leap into crossover country-pop, but there's little question that the sultry gloss of Black is a consolidation of 2014's Riser, a record slicker and straighter than its predecessors. Call it maturation as much as a shift in aesthetics. Now 40, Bentley doesn't spend as much time raising the roof as he once did, preferring slow grooves and smoky textures. When he gets loose, it's in a measured fashion: "Somewhere on a Beach" and "Roses and a Time Machine," tacit sequels to "Drunk on a Plane," march to a beat so deliberate that revelry seems like an afterthought, even when Dierks sings about "edumacation." Only when he brings Trombone Shorty in for a cameo on "Mardi Gras" does the pace actually quicken, but Black is intentionally bereft of such carefree moments. Alternating impeccable midtempo anthems and soft ballads -- the latter including duets with Maren Morris ("I'll Be the Moon") and Elle King ("Different for Girls") -- Black winds up gelling into gently pulsing AAA-country. It's mood music, sometimes playing as smooth as a seduction but better suited for moments of introspection when you're surrounded by a crowd and need to isolate. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine