Live, Laugh, Love (Giant, 1999)

Five albums into his career, Clay Walker is doing fine, but he still hasn't released a consistently good album. This one has its highlights - "She's Always Right," for instance, is a beautiful love song, and the old Earl Thomas Conley hit "Holding Her and Loving You" is just a great song. "It Ain't Called Heartland (For Nothin')" is upbeat, light, and cute, and "The Chain of Love" is a heartwarming story.

Aside from those four songs, however, this album doesn't contain much else to recommend it. "Cold Hearted" should provide a perfect vehicle for Walker's hip-shaking in-concert theatrics, but on album, it's just a boring, over-blown midtempo song. And, of course, Walker needed some new trite ballads about love to please his female fans, so he included songs like "If a Man Ain't Thinking ('Bout His Woman)" and "Once in a Lifetime Love." This album treads no new ground. So, it should please Walker's existing fans, but probably won't win him many new ones.