Mark McKinney

World in Between

Summer Jams Clearance Sale, Part 2

Mark McKinney gained Lone Star traction on 2013's Standing My Ground, but his fifth album doesn't push the local songwriter much further. Road-worn opener "90 Miles" rides the best moment, and leaves the rest to roll downhill. McKinney falls too easily into triteness both lyrically and musically, sometimes clashing cliches, as on "Rainy Day Money" and closer "Revolution." Relationship woe and want gets assuaged by even more familiar escapes into alcohol and open highways.

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Mark McKinney

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