is a bit of a goofball, which is a compliment. Unlike his second wave brethren, he realizes that a good part of music is having a good time, and he refuses to take things too seriously. Add to that a good taste in songwriters -- something that can be particularly difficult for his peers, especially in terms of -- and you have somebody who's a reliable record maker, somebody who always has a good joke and a good at hand. Since he's so consistent, he's easy to underrate, because he makes it all seem easy and he does it with a smile. A smash hit like can provide an opportunity to reassess an artist, or at least to take stock of what he has to offer, and that happened with 's 2001 album, , yet another solid record that stood out from the pack due to that great song. For his follow-up, 2003's , could have used that big hit to try something else, but he doesn't. He sticks to his tried and true neo- and formula. But if a formula works, why try to change it? And proves that the formula does work, offering smiles and slow dances in equal measure, all delivered with an offhand, guy-next-door charm from . Sometimes the slow tunes get a little too slow, sometimes the uptempo numbers are a little too silly (the title track has a good premise but some of the jibes don't quite work, not least because the Die Hard 4 mentioned in the second verse as a film preference doesn't even exist), but these are minor quibbles since this is a fun record. It has good-time party songs like the cheerful (which is connected to the "party bone," after all) and which does better than 's duet with that was a smash hit the summer was released, as well as good like 's By the time the record closes with a live version of you're beyond wondering why it's here and just enjoying the ride. True, this album doesn't offer much different than other records, but song for song, it's one of his finest efforts and a hell of a lot of fun. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine