Love Story
Alabama MC Yelawolf fuses both sides of his musical heritage on second album *Love Story*, a 74-minute opus of concrete-tough flows and country-rock grooves. The guitars twang and the drums come down hard on “Whiskey in a Bottle,” echoing the rapper’s Deep South origins. With his mentor, Eminem, in the producer’s chair, meanwhile, Yela shows off his singing chops over the jangly chords of catchy pop-country track “American You.” Packed with anthems that could inspire patriotic flag-waving across the entire Bible Belt, this is not your typical love story.
Yelawolf has spent years making Love Story, his second official album as a major label artist and first release since 2013’s Trunk Muzik Returns. It seems to cement a damning new identity for him: once-compelling mixtape artist, shoddy album-maker.
Lacking the focus of his debut, Yelawolf's 74-minute sophomore release could easily be divided into two albums that could each shine brighter on their own, but this 2015 release was announced back in 2012, so consider the cumbersome abundance of tracks available here the expected results of a long-delayed effort.