Celebrating their 20th anniversary as a working band -- their debut,
Millican, came out in 1998 but the group formed two years earlier --
Reckless Kelly reconnect with their roots on 2016's
Sunset Motel. That much is evident from "How Can Yu Love Him (You Don't Even Like Him)," a straight-down-the-middle slice of Red Dirt country that provides the opening salvo on a record that doesn't mess around with anything too fussy, either in concept or sound. This stands in contrast with the shinier surfaces and looser themes of 2013's
Long Night Moon, with doesn't mean
Reckless Kelly lacks ambition on
Sunset Motel. Certainly, the ballads demonstrate a sense of elegant lyricism, but they're also ready to fill out arenas with the hard-rocking cynicism of "Radio" and "Buckaroo," which is moodily sculptured despite its stomp. Such versatility winds up as an effective testament to how much ground
Reckless Kelly have covered in their two decades. They may be drawing from several different sources, they may echo the sensibility of some of their Texas peers, but how they weave these threads together is distinctive, and it's why
Sunset Motel sounds as strong as most of the records the band have released over the years. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine