A SPIRITED DEFENSE OF COUNTRY

You've got to love a country album that opens with a movie-trailer spoof and a ballad comparing one's lover to cocaine. Niemann's a freewheeling honky-tonker, whose first single covers a marginal '90s rock hit with nine vocal parts, and an intelligent singer/songwriter with a penchant for cornball humor. This entertaining debut includes enough drinking songs that Niemann offers a recap at the end. — Brian Mansfield

Recommendations: Lover, Lover; The Buckin' Song