Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Billboard	85/100
Robert Christgau	B+
Country Weekly	B+
The Gazette
The Independent
Los Angeles Times
The Oakland Press
Premier Guitar
Rolling Stone
Spin	8/10
USA Today

Wheelhouse is the ninth studio album by American country music artist Brad Paisley. The album was released on April 9, 2013, by Arista Nashville with Paisley being the only producer on the album instead of Frank Rogers.

The album was recorded at Paisley's home in Franklin, Tennessee, which in order to do this he "converted the yellow farmhouse on his property to a studio, which allowed him to work on the album at all hours of the day and night."

With respect to subject matter, The New York Times Jon Caramanica noted how Paisley "tackles a host of country pieties out in the open, as if sensing the moment might finally be right to hear country songs about difference." Daryl Addison of GAC found that this album was an "adventurous undertaking". At the Los Angeles Times, Randy Lewis affirmed that Paisley "taking on such hot-button topics as spousal abuse, Southern provincialism, racism and social justice alongside characteristically well-crafted mainstream country fare." To this, Jerry Shirver of USA Today exclaimed "bravo to Brad Paisley for being among the wave of mainstream country artists who keep prodding the genre into the here and now, lyrically and musically." So, Caramanica found that "by being studiously strait-laced, though, Mr. Paisley is exactly the type of person who might slip in unnoticed and effect change." However, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine alluded to how the album "suffers when the cross-cultural ambition is too great."Spin magazine's Jason Gubbels writes this is because Paisley "forgot his moral insights have always functioned best as ambiguities, not set pieces."

Bernard Perusse of The Gazette said the album features "catchy melodies, plainspoken lyrics and one man's attempt to transplant contemporary country from its red-state ghetto into the hearts of everyone."Taste of Country's Billy Dukes told that "'Wheelhouse' delivers a familiar mix of humor, life lessons and scorching guitar solos, but it does it in a way different from any of the other eight albums the...singer has released," which he evoked how Paisley "took his old formula, balled it up, lit it on fire and tossed the ashes in the garbage". In addition, Lewis of the Los Angeles Times found that the music is packaged up "in an arena-ready singalong," that Paisley "tacitly inviting listeners to sample his perspective." At The Boston Globe, Scott McLennan praised the writing on this album as being "sharp". Addison of GAC found that with Paisley "producing and writing/co-writing every song himself, Brad delivers 14 full songs that are incredibly thoughtful, well crafted and willing to take risks without losing what fans love most – his personality and clever songwriting."

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Wikipedia