She Only Loves Me

Audio Compact Disc

Label: Indie Extreme

Category: Pop/Rock

She Only Loves Me

UPC: 044003145597

Release Date: 09/20/2011

Original Release Date: 09/20/2011

Number of Discs: 1

William Ruhlmann

Nick Verzosa proudly proclaims himself a Texas singer/songwriter which means, for one thing, that his home state has to get mentioned now and then in his songs (e.g., "Look Back to Texas"). It also implies kinship with a contingent of quality individual artists from Townes Van Zandt to Steve Earle, among others. But on the basis of his debut full-length CD, She Only Loves Me, Verzosa doesn't really deserve to be mentioned in that company, even if he may have a future in Nashville. The album's title tells only half the story of the title song, the other half being the parenthetical addition "(When I'm Leaving)," and it turns out to be the first of a series of songs either entirely or partially written by the singer in which he explores a romantic relationship gone sour. Others include "So Mean" (that's what she is), "Back When Love Was Easy" (it isn't anymore), and "Stronger Than That" (the singer hopes to be strong enough to leave, but seems obsessed). In "I Wouldn't Answer," Verzosa seems to be suggesting that the fault is really his, and one reason may be that old, reliable country music go-to, drinking. The album's second major subject is inebriated dissipation. In "Lazy River Days," the singer recalls partying down by the river where he's "writin' down lyrics and dreamin' ?bout fame." Actually achieving fame might require more effort than the men in this music seem able to muster, whether they are personified by the singer himself or described in the third person, as in "7th Year Senior," which is about a permanent undergraduate more interested in beer than in studying. As might be expected, Verzosa addresses these subjects in a combination of honky tonk ravers and cry-in-your-beer ballads, singing in a nasal, twangy tenor. He seems to have mastered the standard tricks of country singing and songwriting, but he rarely rises above the formulaic. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi