Set You Free
Gary Allan has long been one of country’s most reliably velvet-voiced beautiful losers. But on his ninth album, the 45-year-old singer lets the crazy out – howling psychobilly on “Bones,” interrupting a recovery-meeting church organ to blame mental ghosts on “It Ain’t the Whiskey.” On “Sand in My Soul,” he vegetates in room 108 of a beachside hotel, letting his hair grow to his waist while the sound of college girls shooting tequila in the parking lot only makes him more antisocial. Elsewhere, he’s a ladies’ man refusing to settle down (except when he does), and his high-register hiccups convince you he’s having more fun than a spring-breaker half his age.