Reboot is the eleventh studio album by American
country music duo
Brooks & Dunn, released on April 5, 2019, through
Arista Nashville. The album features re-recorded versions of 12 of the duo's songs, done as collaborations with other country music artists. Reboot was produced by
Dann Huff. It debuted at number eight on the US
Billboard 200.
Content
The album includes twelve renditions of Brooks & Dunn's previous singles, each done with featured vocals from another country music artist. Regarding the creation of the album, duo member
Kix Brooks said that "we didn’t do any production meetings about how we might cut these things", while
Ronnie Dunn said that "Each artist came at it from a different angle", noting that
Jon Pardi in particular did not want to make any musical alterations on "
My Next Broken Heart".[1] The duo announced the track listing on February 21, after having released three of the album's tracks on social media: "My Next Broken Heart", along with "
Brand New Man" with
Luke Combs and "
Believe" with
Kane Brown.
Dann Huff produced the entire album, with co-production from
Kacey Musgraves on her rendition of "
Neon Moon". The album is Brooks & Dunn's first studio release since 2007's Cowboy Town.[2]
Critical reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album 3 out of 5 stars. His review praised the performances of Luke Combs,
Brothers Osborne, Jon Pardi, and
Midland as staying true to Brooks & Dunn's sounds, but criticized the performances of
Brett Young,
Kane Brown, and
Thomas Rhett. He said of the latter that "These cuts aren't stumbles as much as confirmation that Brooks & Dunn may be a tad too old to learn new tricks, but the rest of Reboot proves that they're still adept at sounding big and burly nearly 30 years after their debut."[3] Jeffrey B. Remz of Country Standard Time gave a largely positive review toward the vocal performances of both Brooks & Dunn and the featured artists, but criticized Huff's production style, stating that "Modern beats aside at times, Brooks & Dunn give a generally welcome re-introduction of their songs with help from musicians who seem to have the right interpretation."[4] Dan McIntosh of Roughstock was largely positive toward the vocals of Brooks & Dunn, praising many of the vocal performances. His review compared Brothers Osborne's rendition of "
Hard Workin' Man" to
ZZ Top, while also comparing Pardi's version of "My Next Broken Heart" to Pardi's own work. He criticized the vocal performance and arrangement of "
Ain't Nothing 'bout You", but thought that
Cody Johnson's performance on "
Red Dirt Road" was the strongest.[5]
Commercial performance
Reboot debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's
Top Country Albums for the chart week of April 20, 2019. This is their first No. 1 on this chart in nearly 10 years since their greatest hits compilation Number 1s... and Then Some in 2009. It sold 21,000 in traditional album, 31,000 in equivalent album units.[6] The album has sold 70,200 copies in the United States as of February 2020.[7]
