REVIEWSHayes Carll, ‘KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories)’

9

• SPIN Rating:9 of 10

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Release Date: February 15, 2011
Label: Lost Highway

Hayes Carll is a wiseacre well versed in both kinds of music -- "honky" and "tonk" -- played in a roadhouse out on Highway 61. KMAG YOYO (a military acronym for "Kiss my ass, guys, you're on your own") reveals Carll's bleeding heart, romantic as well as political. "Another Like You" has Carll and Cary Ann Hearst indulging in some hilariously insulting foreplay as they tumble toward bed. Meanwhile, the Dylanesque title track rambles intensely from Iraq on up to deep space, leaving the teenaged narrator dazed and confused.