Kid Rock: Cocky

After spending much of the '90s laboring in obscurity as a borderline novelty act, Kid Rock broke through to the mainstream with 1998's Devil Without A Cause, an album that appealed to kids who loved Licensed To Ill and Master Of Puppets, and who viewed hip-hop and rock as complementary rather than contradictory. Though Cocky marks Rock's first new album since that hit, he's maintained a high profile by releasing History Of Rock (a collection of reworked material nobody bought the first time), mentoring Uncle Kracker, mourning Joe C., and publicly wooing James King, Sheryl Crow, and, perhaps inevitably, Pamela Anderson. Considering how long it took for Rock to rise to the top, it's not surprising that Cocky plays it safe, tinkering slightly with Devil's formula but generally delivering virtual carbon copies of its monster hits. "Forever" is the most egregious offender, blatantly rewriting Rock's last huge hit, "American Bad Ass," which was itself little more than a slight variation on Rock's dick-waving, chest-beating redneck anthems "Cowboy" and "Bawitdaba." Unfortunately, "Forever" is the high-water mark for Cocky's flat-out rockers, which tower over a handful of serious tracks that prove Devil Without A Cause's "Only God Knows Why," far from being a devastatingly deadpan parody of awful power ballads, was in fact a legitimately awful power ballad. Rock's desire to grow as an artist is understandable, but the self-proclaimed Early Morning Stoned Pimp shouldn't be allowed within 1,000 feet of sentiments as comically inane as, "We can make it through the storms and winds of change." "Lonely Road Of Faith," meanwhile, more than delivers on the pretension of its title, while "Picture" unintentionally recalls the dead-on '70s-rock parody of Tenacious D, only without the irony. Given Rock's rabid fan base, Cocky may continue the rap-rocker's commercial winning streak, but only one album after his breakthrough, Rock's amped-up blend of cock-rock, old-school braggadocio, and heavy-metal attitude is already yielding diminishing returns.