Born Free - Kid Rock

Kid Rock has been known throughout his career for many different things. Musically Robert James Ritchie (Kid Rock's birth-name) rose to fame through his unique brand of southern rap metal. After a three albums that did not find much success, Kid Rock had earned enough money to do a larger more produced album, Devil Without a Cause. This album was a breakthrough as it had a very grandiose and heavy sound from the heavy metal played by the band, along with Kid Rock flaunting his talents at writing lyrics. After the enormous success and attention of Devil Without a Cause, Kid Rock released The History of Rock, an album full of his older songs that he had rerecorded and improved with the larger budget, along with the smash hit "American Badass". Then in 2001 can the album Cocky. While this album was very heavy and hard like Devil Without a Cause, it showed a little more of Ritchie's southern influence. After the mega success of Cocky (especially the single "Picture" which was very popular with the country audience) Kid Rock ventured into a lot more southern rock with the next two albums the eponymous Kid Rock and the very sucesful Rock N Roll Jesus. While the hardcore fans enjoyed the rock and rap sound of Kid Rock's unique songwriting, his most commercially succesful songs were the deep rooted southern ballads that he wrote. As a result for his most recent venture, Ritchie discarded his usual foul-mouthed head-banging rhymes, for a more soulful and bluesy album. This resulted in "Born Free" a phenomenal album in all senses of the word, but something very different from what is to be expected from Kid Rock.

The first song is the single "Born Free" a beautiful ballad written about the American spirit. This song begins with a simple acoustic guitar melody joined by some piano chording. The song gains much of its essence from teh wailing of Kid Rock's raspy yet well tuned voice. The song becomes more layered at the chorus with electric guitars and more prominent drums, but for the most part Ritchie's voice and lyrics truly carry the feeling and meaning to the song.

The second track "Slow my Roll" is an up-beat and laid-back tune. The title "Slow my Roll" is humorous in reference to the titles and lyrics of past Kid Rock rap songs, but this song is still quite bluegrass. Even though the tempo increases on this song, it is still based in simple but layered musicianship coming from acoustic and twangy electric guitars blended with simple but driving drum beats. Ritchie's vocals hold strong through the second song and remind the audience to relax and enjoy the ride.

The third track "Care" is an interesting song. This song slows back down and deals with prominent issues such as world hunger, world peace, and other societal problems. Kid Rock explores his vocal range in this song and shows his more gospel and smoother side. Kid Rock features two guest singers on this song as well, first is Martina McBride who does a great job and harmonizes very nicely with Ritchie.  The second guest is T.I. who begins rapping in the middle of the slow peaceful ballad. While this represents a unity of univeral cultures and lifestyles (Men and Women, White and Black), the singing distracts the audience from the flow and rhythm of the song.

The fourth track "Purple Sky" is another powerful tune, similar to Born Free. The music is similar to the first two tracks with the electric guita being a littl e more prominent on this song and carrying more of a melody rather than simple chords. By the time Kid Rock begins the chorus the audience is already hooked and it only gets better as he pours his heart out into this beautiful and elegant love song.

"When it Rains" the fifth song on the album, and a little bit of a detour from the inspiring and encouraging first few tracks. Not to say that it is not a good song, it is just much more sad than the first few tracks. "When it Rains" deals with reminiscence of a time long since past, and is a great representation of the album, showing where Ritchie has come from. Kid Rock sings very well on this song once again and by the breakdown towards the end of the song, the audience is nearly brought to tears.

"God Bless Saturday" is an up-beat anthem for the working class. The song opens with a fun twangy electric guitar riff, leading to Kid Rock howling about the tough workweek. However when the chorus hits the band picks up and rejoices in the fun and excitement of saturday. This song is thematically targeted to show respect to the blue collar workers which make up much of Ritchie's audience. Thematically this song carries along with the rest of the album talking about working hard but enjoying and being grateful the good times that we have.

"Collide" is a very slow ballad with two guest stars featured. Kid Rock duets with Cheryl Crow once again, playing off of the success of their previous song "Picture" off the album Cocky. Kid Rock once again proves his range as he gets down and connects soul to soul with the audience with this heart-rending lament. Kid Rock and Cheryl Crow produce another great song about lost love. The other performer on this track is Bob Seger on the piano, Seger is a great influence of Kid Rock and perhaps this helped Kid Rock tap into his spiritual essence in his singing.

The eighth song "Flyin' High" is possibly the most fun song of the entire album. This song keeps up a slow tempo, but remains up beat. The feeling portrayed is the unwinding after a long day and enjoying the litte thing that are present at that moment. Instead of remembering a good time, this song makes a good time out of what and whom ever ever is present at that moment. After the guitar solo Kid Rock shares a verse with Zac Brown a famous country singer/guitar player who typically sings this style of relaxed and happy tune. No matter who you are where you are or whats happening, when this song is played it instantly produces a good time.


"Times Like These" is another song that brings back reminiscent feelings like "When it Rains". However, this time Kid Rock sings more about sitting back and enjoying the day you are in and living life to its fullest. Even though today may not be as good as yesterday it is still great to be alive and can be made into any number of great memories. The acoustic guitar strumming on this song is simple but once again accompanies Ritchie's vocals superbly.

"Rock On" is a slower song very much similar to a classic ballad by a southern rock artist, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd might record. Even though this is one of the most dismal and mournful songs on the album, it still has the essence of "Rolling on" and the spirit that Kid Rock has kept through the album to push through adversity and never give up.

The penultimate song on the album is "Rock Bottom Blues" a very fun throwback bluesy tune, complete with harmonica and clapping. This song starts off slow but determined with a straight blues driven rhythm guitar, and the then band keeps joining in and the song snowballs to a great jam session piano, singing, and guitar.

The final song "For the First Time (In a Long Time)" is a bit of an experiment for this album. Kid Rock uses falsetto singing on this track, a unique quality that is not present in most music. For the most part this song comes off as a shock from the unbelievably consistent album that surrounds it, however when this song is isolated and listened to on its own, it holds up. This song isn't neccessarily the strongest track on the album, and maybe not the best track to finish on, but if this song is considered the blemish it says a lot about the rest of the album.

From cover to cover Kid Rock truly explored a new musical genre and style, and left everything he had on this album. Ritchie proves his gift for writing truly legendary songs from chorus after chorus that makes you want to stand up and sing along, to the heartmelting emotions that he brings out in his ballads. This is an incredible album that anyboddy who enjoys music can appreciate.