I'm Already There  (Audio CD) 
by Lonestar

In the Mark McGuinn-penned "Unusually Unusual," lead singer Richie McDonald swoons over a girl who's "absolutely unpredictable." If only the same could be said of I'm Already There, which fulfills every expectation one could have of a Lonestar album. As usual, the band's ordinariness is delivered at a highly competent level, and the recordings here are all catchy all the time. The band rocks out in an agreeably familiar way, making equal use of country, pop, and AOR conventions, and McDonald can hit any note he wants if he's given a running start--as on the romanticized rationalizations of a power ballad called "I'm Already There," this album's bid for a hit of "Amazed" proportions. The disc's most surprising moment, "Without You," is also its most disappointing. After a mumbled, emotionally complex verse ("Hurt, cry, pray to die / That's all I've got left to do"), McDonald and his mates suddenly launch into an inexplicably bombastic chorus that sounds like its never even been introduced to its own depressive heart. --David Cantwell