CD Review: Double Live

Disc One
1) Callin' Baton Rouge
2) Two Of A Kind, Workin' On A Full House
3) Shameless
4) Papa Loved Mama
5) The Thunder Rolls
6) We Shall Be Free
7) Unanswered Prayers
8) Standing Outside The Fire
9) Longneck Bottle
10) It's Your Song
11) Much Too Young
12) The River
13) six seconds of crowd noise
14) Tearin' It Up
Disc Two
1) Ain't Goin' Down
2) Rodeo
3) The Beaches Of Cheyenne
4) Two Piña Coladas
5) Wild As The Wind
6) To Make You Feel My Love
7) That Summer
8) American Honky-Tonk Bar Association
9) If Tomorrow Never Comes
10) The Fever
11) Friends In Low Places
12) The Dance
Sure, Garth Brooks is the best-selling artist in American history, besides those British guys. Sure, his high-energy shows brought live country music to a new level. Sure, he's a good singer.
Sure. I'll also give him the fact that, a few times throughout these two discs, he ventures outside of the boundaries of country music, mainly on the gospel number "We Shall Be Free" the classic rock of "Rodeo", the spot-on Jimmy Buffett impression on "Two Piña Coladas", the honky-tonk of "American Honky-Tonk Bar Association", and...wait. That's it.
The problem with this album is that you can count the outstanding tracks on one hand. The rest is a slight variation of this following sentence: My baby left me last Sunday and I've been drinking ever since. The same banal, unoriginal garbage that people like me avoid, that Garth Brooks' fans always have and always will eat up.
I try to be open-minded, though, so I gave Double Live a shot. Anyone THIS popular must be worth a listen. Right?
Sure. To approximate the legendary Garth Brooks live experience, listen to "Callin' Baton Rouge" over and over, 26 times straight. The key word there is "approximate" - that one song on loop would actually be slightly more enjoyable.
** out of five