Review: Jon Pardi's Heartache Medication is positioned as a bartender's best friend 

Jon Pardi's third studio album, Heartache Medication, is surely positioned to be a bartender's best friend.
Heartache Medication by Jon Pardi (Capitol Records Nashville via AP)
Heartache Medication by Jon Pardi (Capitol Records Nashville via AP)

Jon Pardi, Heartache Medication (Capitol Nashville).

Jon Pardi's third studio album, Heartache Medication, is surely positioned to be a bartender's best friend.

The traditional country release offers up a strong sampling of drinking songs about love lost.

Pardi is a California native, but he's got the Nashville arithmetic down to a science.

Break up with a woman, drown your sorrows and write about it.

There are at least four songs here that find our protagonist listening to a jukebox and tipping back a beer or something stronger.

The title track puts a fine point on it as Pardi sings, "Here I go again/I'm drinking one, I'm drinking two."

It would be tiresome if Pardi weren't so good at it.

He eschews some of the sound fusion that has crept into modern country, instead opting for traditional fiddles and Telecasters.
 

<em>Heartache Medication by Jon Pardi (Capitol Records Nashville via AP)</em>
Heartache Medication by Jon Pardi (Capitol Records Nashville via AP)


It works well and he's got a talented ensemble around him.

The best and most raucous track on the album is Me and Jack, a tribute to a breakup with a certain bottle on the shelf.

Like a nicely aged Tennessee whiskey, Pardi's music is strong stuff and should keep him a staple on working-class radio.

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