Kid Rock returns with his latest album ‘Rock and Roll Jesus’ on July 28th. After a three year absence he could have quite easily sat on his arse and counted his cash, after all 22 million record sales do speak volumes for an artist. Not being particularly au fait with the intricacies of Mr Rock’s material I tried to approach this album with an open mind, sadly the lead single kind of soured the pitch a little for me but hey, one bad apple right?

Sadly it doesn’t get much better than said single. with maybe the slightest glimmer of redemption (a recurrent theme throughout the album) which comes in the shape of one, maybe two tracks. In the most part the content comes courtesy of a straight up and down rock/blues flavourings laced with a liberal twang of country and acoustic for good measure. Lyrically Rock seems to lean heavily in places on the old “we should make the world a better place” which sits at odds with his diametrically opposed world view of screwing hot women “till they’re cold”. It seems like you can take the man off the trailer park but bits of caravan are still firmly wedged in the back of his head.

In places you find yourself just about coping with the hip hop tinged work on tracks like ‘So Hott’ and the humorous ‘Half Your Age’ which is a country drenched barbed attack on his ex wife Pamela Anderson. Many people are calling this the album where Kid Rock matures as a performer and songwriter and I daresay he can whip up a decent live show but as far as the material goes, he still has a way to go.

Fans of his previous material should find something to enjoy in here but as far as the casual listener is concerned they might want to try before they buy.