5 (Arista, 1998)

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn took the "Ain't Broke, Dont' Fix It," adage to heart, cranking out another album's worth of radio- and dancefloor-friendly country pop.

For a duo started by two Nashville songwriters, Brooks and Dunn have written an increasingly smaller amount of songs with each new disc. Here, they wrote only four songs - all collaborations with outside writers, and only one did they write together. They picked some wildly uneven material here, from the jokey but insanely catchy, "Brand New Whiskey," to the wretched faux Marty Robbins tune, "South Of Santa Fe," which at least boasts a great set of harmony vocals on the chorus.

The real reason this album's selling, the duet (or is it a trio?) with Reba, "If You See Him/If You See Her." It's a typical ballad in the Seventies light rock style so prevalent on country radio today. As "event" records go, however, this one's a snoozer. The track is redeemed a bit by the trio's voices working nicely together.

This isn't the best B&D album yet, but it there is enough good material among the clunkers to get a head start on the second volume of their "Greatest Hits" collection.