My copy of Tim's new CD, Live Like You Were Dying, arrived this morning and I immediately opened it up and started playing it.

I haven't decided which songs I like best, yet. "Old Town New"; "Something's Broken" and "Open Season on My Heart" have a wonderful sound to them. Of the three, "Open Season On My Heart" is the best. "Do You Want Fries with them" had me laughing; "Drugs or Jesus" is a song with a great message about the choices we make in life. "Live Like You Were Dying" is an amazing song, that will never grow old with me. "Back When" is also funny. Tim shows alot of humor in these songs, along with a serious message.

In "Back When" he talked about how times have changed and it's hard to understand the things people day these days. The Lyrics"

Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
Cracks what you were doing when you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
When you said "I'm down with that", it meant you had the flu

Tim once again recorded this album with his longtime band "The DanceHall Doctors" as well as collaborated with some of the best writers in Nashville.

A nice little bonus was the appearance of his lovely, and talented wife, Faith Hill, singing background vocals on "Blank Sheet of Paper".

This CD may disappoint some, but not this girl. I'm very pleased with it, and also commend Amazon.com for shipping it so that it arrived to me on the release date! Can't get better than that!

Great job to Tim!

Tim McGraw is quickly proving himself to be a musical innovator. Along with his band, the superb Dancehall Doctors, he has created his two best albums yet: TIM MCGRAW AND THE DANCEHALL DOCTORS, and this one.

LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING is a ride through progressive, alternative, outlawish country music, with enough radio-friendliness to ensure airplay. McGraw certainly knows how to select songs; all of these are brilliantly written by some of today's best songwriters (Rodney Crowell, Tom Douglas, Bruce Robison, Craig Wiseman, Casey Beathard, the Warren Brothers, Don Schlitz, James Slater, etc).

McGraw deals with depression and hope on "Kill Myself," "We Carry On," and the title track; covers heartbreak in "Old Town New" and "Something's Broken;" eternal love on "My Best Friend" and "Just Be Your Tear;" abuse and recovery on "Walk Like a Man;" and adds in enough sarcastic, sardonic humor in "Everybody Hates Me," "Do You Want Fries With That," and "Back When" to keep this album from getting TOO serious.

One of the most dependable hitmakers, it's easy to pass Tim McGraw off as a one-man act; easy, but not true. His penchant for choosing high-class songs has helped him build a legacy hit after hit after hit. LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING is probably the best--and most personal--album McGraw has recorded yet. In fact, it's quite possible that, decades from now, people will look back on it as a classic example of country music done right.

Tim McGraw's latest album "Live Like You Were Dying" is one of my favorite albums of the year, which is a lot to say considering the fact that country music is not my forte. The music on this album is unbelievable at making you want to get up and sing at the top of your lungs, even if you're like me and don't know the words. It's inspirational and fun all at the same time. Every song on the album has that good old country music feeling, all the lyrics are sang with dragged out syllables and typical steel guitar and country instruments.
I'm not going to lie and say I bought the album because I was a huge Tim McGraw fan, the truth is was his first single was so catchy and got stuck in my head for days I had to purchase it just to keep my sanity. It wasn't until after listening to the same song over and over again for about five hours until I ventured off to experience the rest of the album.
Only one song has been released so far off this album but it is filled with sixteen awesome tracks. One of my personal favorite songs on the album is "Back When". The lyrics are basically Tim McGraw pleading with the people listening to the album to somehow bring things back to the "good old days". The great thing about this song is that he does this in a very comical way. The chorus is Tim asking do you remember when "a hoe was a hoe, coke was a coke, and crack was what you were doing when you were cracking jokes". When I first heard these lyrics it brought a smile and a little bit of laughter to my face.
The reason I bought this album though was for the song, "Live Like You Were Dying", the title of the album. The song is about his father who one day was diagnosed with cancer. The song starts off with Tim expressing the confusion that someone typically goes through when presented with information like this, but it makes a huge one hundred and eighty degree turn in emotion when Tim talks about how his father handled it. He lets us know that his father took this as an opportunity to live life to the fullest. Tim asks his dad what he's going to do with his life now that he has this always in the back of his mind. His father tells him he went "skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbing, I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Machu", basically telling him that he's going to live his life the way he always wanted to. He then goes onto how he began to care a lot more about his family and friends, and how he appreciated life so much more. To most people these might just be lyrics to sell songs and make money but to me these words really hit home. For the first time in my life after listening to this song it left me with a different outlook in life, it made me a lot more appreciate for the things and people that I have in my life.
You might think I'm just B.S.ing you but think what you want this is how I feel, and I mean what I say. So if you're looking to change your outlook on life and need somewhere to start I would definitely recommend this album. Even if you're not looking for that this album is also just great to kick back and listen to.

One reviewer on this site stated "He is a multi-faceted artist, capable of so much, yet chooses to labor on depressing songs like, "Kill Myself", "Drugs or Jesus" and "Open Season on My Heart". "

This person obviously didn't listen to the lyrics at all. Kill Myself is a very unique song about a man making positive changes in his life. He decides in the end to kill his old-self that 'drank too much' and 'hurt everyone he ever touched.' Also drugs or jesus is about a man finding himself and a spiritual self in a world that usually choses drugs/addiction.

This CD is filled with positive messages, and funny ones, if you give it a chance. Tim shines on 'just be your tear' and his vocals have never been better than they are on 'my old friend' of course there are the great country sounding songs like 'how bad do you want it' and 'back when' that will have you tapping your feet or doing the 2 step.

You will love this CD even if you aren't a die-hard Tim fan. If you have any of his other albums, you will surely enjoy this one. It is a little ballady, a little country, and a whole lotta tim!

Like many of the other reviewers, over the years I have enjoyed Tim McGraws uptempo cuts much more than the 'darker/introspective' tunes. There were always a fair share of uptempo songs on every project to balance it out. When I first heard "Live Like You Were Dying", to me, it was an instant classic that is perhaps Tim's most meaningful song since "Don't Take the Girl". It admittedly made me take a step back to hear the mellowness and rootsy angle on the rest of the project. I, like others, skipped the tunes looking for the uptempo tunes. But, in remembering my first reaction to some of his previous work and how I changed after more listens, I gave this a few more listens, and I'm glad I did. True - there's no particularly loud arena friendly tunes - but rather some very well-written songs that are easy to make ones own and much different from the predictable cookie-cutter cliche filled tunes Corporate Nashville is forcing artists to release. If you can look beyond the musical arrangements (or the lack of loudness), you'll discover tunes that make you laugh ("Everybody Hates Me" & "...Fries..."), think ("Kill Myself", "blank sheet of paper"), reflect (title track, "My Old Friend"), or inspire ("We Carry On" / "Walk Like a Man"). Hats off to Tim for having the progressive mindset and using his pull with Curb to consistently raise the bar in Nashville and stretch the boundaries of country music. If you're looking for old-style TM first, give #5, 10, 14, & 16 a listen.