The Great Divide is the seventh release by JD & the Straight Shot. On this record, like the others, Dolan fronts a quintet of professional-grade musicians strumming through bland, folksy fare, with Dolan himself on vocals and guitar. His robotic, tedious phrasing croaks out across nine original tracks and two covers, betraying a total lack of imagination, or oversight, or both. But, like any vanity project, none of that matters. The prestigious Nashville studio no doubt charged their very top rate, the engineers all got paid handsomely, and the band itself has secured one of the cushiest gigs they’ll ever have.

All that matters is that Dolan has another record to call his own.

It’s not all terrible. In the song “Invisible,” the meter shifts from eight beats per phrase to six to eleven, then back to eight — the album’s most pleasant surprise. This is also the album’s only pleasant surprise. Musically, listening to The Great Divide is like asking a waiter for a drink, only to watch as they bring you a glass of water from the bathroom. It’s not necessarily offensive, so long as you ignore the context.