★★★☆☆

Love and Theft’s newest album, “Whiskey on My Breath,” can best be characterized as a roller coaster ride. While the country duo is able to impress with their talented lyricism and their smooth harmonies, they also disappoint with some of their hollow choices for the album’s themes.

Comprised of Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson, Love and Theft is an American Music Award, Country Music Award and Country Music Television Award-nominated duo. But many music fans, even country fans, have no idea who they are. While they struggled with their previous label, RCA Nashville, they have come up to release “Whiskey on My Breath,” their third album.

“Whiskey on My Breath” may be a surprise to the duo’s fans. The album has a slower vibe than their previous album. The album also goes back to a more traditional country sound. This country sound lends itself to a more vulnerable album, yet the contemporary country lyrics give the album a bro-country feel. This paradoxical structure leads to a widespread album filled with hits and misses.
The first few songs on the album are filled with boring cliches. While the songs are not bad, they are not good either. “Can’t Wait for the Weekend” is a cliched song about weekend warriors. Its subpar lyrics and bland vocals show off little of Love and Theft’s musical talent.

More cliches follow on “Anytime, Anywhere,” “Like I Feel It” and “Easy,” which are relationship songs with premises that have been heard a million times on country radio. Love and Theft bring nothing unique or creative to these songs. Although lyrically, “Can’t Stop Smiling” would fall into this category, the song’s feel-good country vibe and use of a tambourine make it an exception from the cliches.

“Hang Out Hungover,” “Tan Lines” and “Let’s Get Drunk and Make Friends” follow the typical bro-country mold. All three songs center on drinking or girls, with “Tan Lines” being the worst offender. Again, none of these songs showcase Love and Theft’s lyrical talents.

Amid the trite themes, Love and Theft showcase their exceptional harmonies and traditional country capabilities paired with their American roots.

The song “Whiskey on My Breath,” the title track from the album, was quite a surprise. Based on the track name, one would assume the song is another hollow country song about drinking and partying. However, the lyrics portray another story: “No I ain’t afraid of dying / But what scares me to death / Is meeting Jesus / With whiskey on my breath.” The song is about the struggles of wanting to go to heaven while struggling with alcoholism and its perils. The song expresses more vulnerability and meaning than many of the empty country songs that are currently saturating the airwaves.

Further into the album is the song “Wrong Baby Wrong,” which country music fans will realize is a cover of a Martina McBride song that hit the top 15 in 2010. Liles was one of the writers of the song, so it makes sense that Love and Theft would cover it. The song has a different perspective from the male point of view given by Love and Theft. Their version is slower and more stripped down than McBride’s version, which gives the duo a chance to showcase their vulnerability, which they do brilliantly. The use of the harmonica also adds a nice traditional country feel to the song.

“Everybody Drives Drunk” was another genuine surprise on the album. Again, like with “Whiskey on My Breath,” the song is not about drinking as expected by the title. This song shows off the lyrical ability of Love and Theft with lines such as: “And everybody’s felt so alone / Like they’ll never find someone / They can call their own / And everybody’s addicted to their own kinda drug / And everybody drives drunk.” The song accentuates how everyone is influenced by past events in their lives. They use driving drunk as a fitting metaphor for going through life under the influence of past love or heartache.

Overall, “Whiskey on My Breath” misses the mark. Although a handful of songs are lyrically beautiful and brilliantly produced, the rest are filled with overused country cliches. The quality of this album is understandable, however, since Love and Theft lost the original set of songs they recorded for their new album, and as independent artists needed to put out a new album quickly before they lost the fan base they had acquired while on RCA Nashville. However, “Whiskey on My Breath” shows what a great duo Love and Theft can be through their meaningful lyrics, showcased on a handful of songs and their perfectly sung harmonies.