Rank a Discography: Dierks Bentley
Dierks Bentley’s new album, Feel That Fire, arrives in stores today, so I recommend you go to Walmart and pick up a copy… of his debut album. Seriously though, folks, here’s my ranking of Dierks Bentley’s discography (minus hits package) to date. Feel free to compare notes – and lists – in the comments section.
1. Dierks Bentley (2003)
On his Capitol debut, Bentley offered a sturdy set of refreshingly traditional-minded contemporary country that seemed to owe more to Strait’s coolness than Garth’s theatrics. Not perfect by any means, but its consistency and uncluttered sound made it one of the better mainstream debuts of the early 2000s.
2. Don’t Leave Me In Love (2001)
Before Capitol came calling, Bentley independently released this album, which wore its low-fi charm on its sleeve and settled (albeit perhaps a little too comfortably) into a pretty cool bluegrass-meets-traditional groove. Bentley was still developing his interpretive skills, but was far enough along to acquit himself pretty nicely. A couple of these songs would reappear two years later on his major label debut.
3. Long Trip Alone (2006)
As Bentley’s star continued to rise, he muscled (and polished) up his sound in an apparent attempt to take his live shows to the next level. This was the first full realization of that effort, a cohesive set of thoroughly contemporary country with most traces of the singer’s early traditionalism thoroughly expunged.
4. Modern Day Drifter (2005)
Not so much terrible as it was plain unremarkable, an uncomfortable attempt to repeat the formula of the self-titled debut while pushing Bentley’s sound into more commercial territory (see the hunkified “Come a Little Closer” and “Cab of My Truck”). It had its bright spots, but felt pretty scattered as a whole.
5. Feel That Fire (2009)
Marketed as a major breakthrough album, Feel That Fire falls far short of expectations. Its greatest sin is that it fails to reveal anything new about the artist. Bentley is good, but not so good that he can afford to stop developing now. For him to do so – and indeed even think he should be rewarded with an Album of the Year nomination for doing so – shows a pretty disheartening artistic complacence on his part.
In Summary
I’d just flip Long Trip Alone and Modern Day Drifter around. I actually haven’t heard his very first album yet, though I hear pretty good stuff about it.
Everything I’ve heard about Dierks’ independent album makes me want it. It isn’t currently commercially available, is it? I haven’t heard his new one yet, although I plan to get it, and frankly am prepared for disappointment.
So of the other three:
1. Dierks Bentley: a very promising major-label debut, with some very good songs
2. Modern Day Drifter: just a touch behind, because I found it less consistently good, and I didn’t like the song Domestic Light And Cold at all
3. Long Trip Alone: I was disappointed with the quality of most of the material compared with the first two.
The independent album isn’t commercially available, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it reissued in the next few years. The demand certainly seems to be there.
I thought Long Trip Alone was a bit weak, but it at least seemed to be working from a unified vision of some sort, whereas Modern Day Drifter felt (to me) more like a haphazard attempt to recreate the debut album.
I didn’t like his self-titled album- I thought it was fairly boring. Long Trip Alone was great, and I’m liking most of Feel That Fire. The Patty Griffin duet is especially amazing!
He doesn’t sing anything new on Feel That Fire, but it’s still entertaining to me.
I’ve got the new one now, and it’s really neck-and-neck for third place. It’s not terrible, but there’s reallly nothing to mark it out at all. I’m most disappointed, I think, that even this year’s bluegrass track is forgettable, because in the past those have been among the highlights for me. I’ll keep it in my curent rotation for a while, to see if I warm up to it. Can Dierks really be serious in suggesting it’s Album of the Year quality?
You should rank Trisha Yearwood’s discography. It would really help me. xD
I used to like Dierks when he started out, but over time, he seemed like he tried/is trying too hard to be like Keith Urban/Kenny Chesney is a lot of ways. His huge teenage-girl fan-base doesn’t help that observation, either. His music has gone down hill, since his debut, for the most part. There are some highlights and some really good songs that he has done, but he strikes me as a guy who tries too hard and doesn’t succeed in getting there. He’s better than a lot of artists, but as time goes on, is becoming more like the mainstream, and becoming mediocre and guessable.