Mother Truckers — Let’s All Go to Bed

The Mother Truckers are to popular music what the Blue Collar crew is to stand-up comedy. If you can stomach the style and shortage of creativity, you’re in for some entertaining, polished material. The Mother Truckers’ latest album, Let’s All Go to Bed, takes their music in a slightly more commercial direction with a little less country twang and a little more straight-ahead pop.

True to the southern rock tradition, most tracks are driven by hard-hitting electric guitars and simple bluesy licks.

The first track, “Dynamite,” opens with a catchy guitar hook that’s reminiscent of Southern greats like Lynyrd Skynyrd. Other tracks, like “I’m Comin’ Over” and “I Give You My Word,” also rely on infectious, guitar-based hooks for their energy and appeal.

Melodies are a primary focus throughout the album. Lead vocalist Teal Collins soars confidently over the band with a straight-ahead style and a knack for choosing just the right moments to add vocal inflections.

Collins’ exceptional vocals are often complemented, especially in some of the slower tracks near the end of the album, with simple harmonies. “When I Get My Wings” and “I’ll Meet You There” both boast refreshing two-part harmonies that are so tastefully placed that the listener often feels Collins is singing both parts (she’s not).

The hidden track at the end of the album, “Let’s Stay Outside,” showcases not only Collins’ clear, pleasant voice, but also her proficiency on the ukulele.

As their name implies, The Mother Truckers always try to incorporate clever, insinuating lyrics into their music. In the provocative title track “Let’s All Go to Bed,” Collins sings, “Let’s all go to bed, let’s all go to bed/Grab a friend, tuck ‘em in, listen what I said.”

Little innuendos, like “You’ll Never See it Coming ‘till the fires up inside of you,” from “Dynamite,” show up all over the album.

If there’s one thing Let’s All Go to Bed sorely lacks, it’s creativity and vision. All of the songs use the same instrumentation, basic song structures and recycled chord progressions.

The end of the album seems like more of a collection of poppy, polished Southern rock songs than an album with direction and something to say. Even a perusal of the song titles will clue you in to the fact that there’s not that’s much unique here.

Whether you’ll enjoy Let’s All Go to Bed or not is a matter of what you’re looking for. If you’re a Southern/country rock expert who wants the next installment of catchy songs, this is definitely the album for you. If you’re looking for something extraordinary, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.