Living Hard

Gary Allan - Living Hard

Living Hard
List Price: $13.98
Our Price: $6.44
You Save: $7.54 (54%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.70 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album



(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Artist: Gary Allan
Brand: Baker Drivetrain
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-10-23
Model: 00602517338357
Music Label: MCA Nashville
Soundtracks:
  1. Watching Airplanes
  2. We Touched the Sun
  3. She's So California
  4. Like It's A Bad Thing
  5. Learning How To Bend
  6. As Long As You're Looking Back
  7. Wrecking Ball
  8. Yesterday's Rain
  9. Trying To Matter
  10. Half Of My Mistakes
  11. Living Hard

Music reviews of Living Hard

Music Review: A fun-loving, free-living record
Rating: 5 Stars

Gary Allan's last all-new studio effort, TOUGH ALL OVER, was a mournful record, written and recorded shortly after his wife's suicide. A GREATEST HITS followed, providing a good transitional buffer (most of Allan's hits have been mournful songs, after all). LIVING HARD is a return to the Gary Allan that we were introduced to, with a more rockin' edge that suits his voice and style perfectly.

LIVING HARD gives Allan a chance to cut loose. Sure, there are some more thoughtful numbers, such as the first single "Watching Airplanes," or the inflectional "Half of My Mistakes." But the true heart of the album lies in forgetting the sorrows, or at least whistling by them; Allan rocks it out on the title track, "Like It's a Bad Thing," and "Wrecking Ball," the latter one of the hardest-hitting rhythms in Allan's catalog. "She's So California" gets so caught up in describing a woman, it ignores the fact that "She's so cool, breakin' all the rules/Risin' star, she'll break your heart". "We Touched the Sun" details the relationship of a couple meant to be together, "Even if it's not forever...even if it's only for a little while."

Over all, the album is an anticipated departure from Allan's melancholy. Don't get me wrong--TOUGH ALL OVER is easily Allan's best record. But it's nice to have him rockin' out again, no cares or worries. He also co-wrote six tracks; thank God he's started writing more. Gary Allan is one of the best country musicians in the business--a singer, a songwriter, a guitarist (go to one of his shows...oh, man!). LIVING HARD isn't as good as its predecessor, but them I'm not sure any record could be. In a musical realm where radio embraces mediocrity, Allan stands out among his peers. As he himself sings: "I don't know about you, but I was put here to live and love/So what if i don't it like everybody else does."
More Living Hard free music reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Description of Living Hard

It's raw and emotional. It's freight-train-to-nowhere lonely. It's hard-rockin', no-apologies country music that has traded in its twang for a gravelly growl millions of fans recognize as the voice of Gary Allan. And with LIVING HARD, his latest release from MCA Nashville, Allan once again proves that, though times may change, the thread of truth at the center of his music remains the same. Features the new single "Watching Airplanes".
Gary Allan has long been the go-to guy for intelligent, edgy country music, informed by the sweaty honky-tonk of the stop-and-sock joints of Bakersfield, CA, and the angry rock & roll of seedy L.A. On Living Hard, he wisely refuses to reprise his previous studio album, 2005?s masterful Tough All Over, which framed the tragic aftermath of his wife?s suicide, even as "Yesterday?s Rain," a memorable lament, might make you think otherwise. Rather, Living Hard largely finds its inspiration in the hipper pop-rock that forged half of Allan's musical altar as a youth: the Eagles ("Like It?s a Bad Thing"), the Beatles ("As Long As You?re Looking Back"), the Rolling Stones ("Living Hard"). This homage is largely found in the instrumental dressings here, as Allan, whose guts-and-growl baritone always telegraphs as much resignation as rebellion, is too creative to salute those sounds outright. Nor is Allan going to corrupt his own authenticity: Co-writing six of the 11 cuts, he rarely rises above the melancholia that perpetually paints him as a man reeling from the jaw-breaking punch of fate that comes out of nowhere, best exemplified in the dazed glaze of "Watching Airplanes" and the brilliant barstool Zen of "Half of My Mistakes." But when he comes up for air, Allan sometimes does so with comic results. On "Wrecking Ball," a sexy roadhouse rocker hammered home on junkyard guitar, he tangles with the wrong woman, to cyclonic end: "She?s a tornado / I?m a trailer house / That girl?s a hurricane in a dress." Allan may be burning the candle at both ends, but on this song and elsewhere, he?s just as seduced by the mystery of his predicament as the rest of us. --Alanna Nash

Country CDs

Music Genres
Bestsellers in Country CDs
Alabama Slide Guitar ImageJohnie Lewis - Alabama Slide Guitar
Release date: 1998-01-20; Music CD
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops: $10.98
Texas Blues ImageLightnin Hopkins - Texas Blues
Release date: 1993-11-30; Music CD
Best price: $14.18
Price in other shops: $16.98
Legends ImageLewis - Legends
Release date: 1986-11-01; Music CD
Price in other shops: $10.98
Hotel California [Vinyl] ImageEagles - Hotel California [Vinyl]
Release date: 1997-12-05; Music CD
Best price: $229.99
Bayou Country ImageCcr - Bayou Country
Release date: 1993-06-18; Music CD
Best price: $70.35
Senor Blues ImageTaj Mahal - Senor Blues
Release date: 1997-06-17; Music CD
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $10.98
Fonte Viva ImageFonte Viva
Music CD
Blackland Farmer-Complete Starday Recordings & Mor ImageFrankie Miller - Blackland Farmer-Complete Starday Recordings & Mor
Release date: 2008-02-05; Music CD
Price in other shops: $78.49
Taken By Surprise ImageTaken By Surprise
by Red Hot Burritos
Published: 1992; Music CD
Christmas Joy: Solo Piano for the Holidays ImageChristmas Joy: Solo Piano for the Holidays
by Deborah Offenhauser
Pba Music Pub; Published: 2005-11-30; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $119.49
Similar CDs
Icon ImageGary Allan - Icon
Release date: 2012-03-06; Music CD
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops: $7.97
Relentless ImageJason Aldean - Relentless
Baker & Taylor; Release date: 2007-05-29; Music CD
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops: $12.98
Used Heart for Sale ImageGary Allan - Used Heart for Sale
Release date: 1996-09-24; Music CD
Best price: $2.80
Price in other shops: $5.98
It Would Be You ImageGary Allan - It Would Be You
ALLAN,GARY; Release date: 1998-05-19; Music CD
Best price: $2.46
Price in other shops: $5.98
Alright Guy ImageGary Allan - Alright Guy
Release date: 2001-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $2.31
Price in other shops: $9.98
Smoke Rings in the Dark ImageGary Allan - Smoke Rings in the Dark
ALLAN,GARY; Release date: 1999-10-26; Music CD
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops: $10.99
Tough All Over ImageGary Allan - Tough All Over
Release date: 2005-10-11; Music CD
Best price: $6.64
Price in other shops: $10.99
See If I Care ImageGary Allan - See If I Care
Release date: 2003-09-30; Music CD
Best price: $7.06
Price in other shops: $10.99
Get Off on the Pain ImageGary Allan - Get Off on the Pain
Release date: 2010-03-09; Music CD
Best price: $5.70
Price in other shops: $10.98
Greatest Hits ImageGary Allan - Greatest Hits
Release date: 2007-03-06; Music CD
Best price: $7.17
Price in other shops: $10.99
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles