Men needing a fresh lease on life find pleasure in “Boats.” One mild profanity notwithstanding, the Dave Matthews duet “I’m Alive” prefers to count blessings than complain about hardships. Childhood sweethearts from the same neighborhood wed, then see history repeat itself when their daughter takes a fancy to a boy “Down the Road.” Hardworking guys ask the Lord for a little relief on “That Lucky Old Sun.” Island life’s simple pleasures (fishing, friends, playing guitar, prayer, a good wife) beat the Lexus-driving, ladder-climbing rat race on “The Life,” however …
Alcohol flows on that song and others, and barflies seem to have all the fun. Guys do shots in a tavern to while away a lazy day (“Nowhere to Go, Nowhere to Be”). Unwilling to give up carousing at his pastor’s request, Chesney tries to bribe God into letting him become an angel once he’s done living it up (“Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven”). The ode to promiscuity “Ten With a Two” relates separate escapades in which the inebriated singer wakes up with homely girls he picked up at a bar.
Chesney is a country star more interested in schooners and Corona than bass boats and Bud—a 21st century Jimmy Buffett. He’s also the activities director for a Caribbean cruise that stops in hedonistic ports of call.
