Maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that
Mr. Saturday Night plays a bit like Heartache Medication, Vol. 2. It's not simply because
Jon Pardi retains the same team behind that 2019 album -- he's rejoined behind the boards by co-producers
Bart Butler and
Ryan Gore -- it's that the California country singer has found his groove and sees no reason to switch up his tempo. Where
Heartache Medication had a few flourishes that moved it beyond the confines of a honky tonk,
Mr. Saturday Night has precisely one: the goofy ramble "Smokin' a Doobie," which rhymes with "on the Guadalupe," one of a few nods to Texas country here.
Pardi also harmonizes with throwback trio
Midland on "Longneck Way to Go," a song designed to conjure neon-lit ghosts of the 1980s, which is a style that's just a bit slicker than
Pardi's usual fare. He nevertheless sounds not just comfortable, but right on "Longneck Way to Go" because, in a sense,
Pardi wasn't made for his times: he's an old-fashioned troubadour who treats arenas as if they were beer joints. What makes
Mr. Saturday Night work is that
Pardi isn't a stuffy revivalist fussing over his arrangements. He keeps things clean and efficient, staying focused on songs designed to sound equally good as a soundtrack to good times or whiling away your sorrows. Maybe that sounds ordinary, but it's a special thing to get straight-ahead country executed as well as this is. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine