Album: Billy Bob Thornton

The Edge of the World, Sanctuary

On The Edge of the World, Billy Bob Thornton flexes his musical muscles a little way beyond the nu-country stylings of his 2001 debut, Private Radio, with songs influenced by the bands he admired in his youth. Which means a few Tom Pettyish folk-rockers, a smattering of Southern rockin' soul such as "Everybody Lies" - in which burring horns, backing choir and churchy organ coda support his claim that "Everybody ties someone to them/ And takes a little dope" - and several rousing, wild and innocent anthems of distinctly Springsteenish cast, like "Emily" and "Island Avenue". The latter, with its urgent entreaties to an uncertain lover, and its deep desire to get away and "leave this circus way behind", is a second cousin to "Thunder Road", while the waitress admired in "Emily" is of a piece with such Springsteen blue-collar belles as Rosalita and Sandy. The urge to escape, and the price paid, is a recurrent theme in songs such as "Fast Hearts" and "The Edge of the World" - ruminations inspired at least in part by the death of Thornton's brother Jimmy - while the salvatory power of partnerhood and parenthood dominates the album's later stages in songs like "God", "Savior" and "Midnight Train". Not that one should take such titles at face value, judging by "Do God Wop", a bizarre doowop/Santana hybrid on which Billy Bob irreverently beseeches a deity, "Could ya just help us out a smidgen?"