Once again, a small-time musician makes it big, and must follow up that successful album with another effort. In this case, it's everybody's favorite redneck, Kid Rock. And he had quite the follow up to build. Devil Without the Cause was a multi-platinum success, and an absolutely great party album. So, Cocky was a curious album by any artist's standards. Was Kid Rock, after an early career with mixed results (at best) finally kicking it in gear and staying around for the long run? Or was he a one-album wonder who just got lucky?

I can't answer that question now, but Cocky points toward the former, but with fewer hits. But not for a lack of having good singles at his disposal; "Picture" is almost as good as "Only God Knows Why" (plus, it has Sheryl Crow), "Cocky" is another "American Badass" (then again, aren't all Kid Rock songs?) and "What I Learned on the Road" is like "Cowboy," but doesn't get annoying after 4 plays.

Rock's problem is that he's lost the ability to choose a good single… But none of the released songs are that bad. "Forever" didn't last too long on the radio, but fits well in the context of the album. "Lonely Road of Faith" is a definite lowlight, though. Weak songwriting, boring, and a half-assed "fast part" to end it. And, "You've Never Met a Mother Fucked Quite Like Me" just isn't single material. The edit, "You never met a mother MOTHER quite like me!" is laughable. Funny video, though.

So, what's left? The first song, "Trucker Anthem" is boring with an overlong intro. "Law It On Me" is a partially folky, partially standard Kid Rock song. "I'm Wrong, But You Ain't Right" is a good songs with a funny ending that I won't reveal here. "I'm a Dog" is right up there with the best of Kid's songs on Devil Without a Cause. That one rocks, and it's catchy.

"Midnight Train to Memphis" is a more country-ish song, until David Spade (in whose movie, Joe Dirt, Kid Rock acted). Then it speeds up, and it's just fine in both halves. "Baby Come Home" is also slightly folk-ish song, but still rap. Not bad, not good. "Drunk in the Morning," again, starts slow then gets fast to "end" the album with a BANG. It's definitely up there with the best songs on the album.

And I said "end" with quotations because there's a "Bonus" track (listed as such on the back of the album), "WCSR" featuring Snoop Dogg. And it's funny… Rock hasn't done a sex rhyme this funny since "Balls In Your Mouth," nor a song this immensely cheesy. Nice throwback to the old school Kid Rock.

In the end, Cocky is somewhat of a disappointment, but it's like Devil Without a Cause's softer twin: Where Devil rocked hard in all but one song, Cocky is more soft, at least in the beginning of about half the songs. Had this been done by the Kid Rock of 1998, I'd have given it a 5 or 6. But since then, Rocks' voice has grown; he's a better singer now than he was in the filtered-through-special-effects "Only God Knows Why," and it's a nice change of pace for Bob Ritchie.