Keith even tackles breezy, electronic-inflected pop on the breezy "Old School," a move that doesn't seem like pandering as its romanticization of the small town suits the album's nostalgia. He spends much of the album looking back upon the "Days I Shoulda Died," concludes that "Growing Up Is a Bitch," and decides that he likes the "Old Me Better." Within those three songs, Keith plays a gussied-up cowboy ballad, dabbles with wanderlust in the vein of Bruce Springsteen, and swings through a jaunty blues, each different style sounding natural in his hands. "Oklahoma Breakdown" opens the record with a bit of nostalgic swagger, providing a keynote for an album where he comes to terms with middle age but still plays with the vigor of a younger man. Lively, funny, and brawny in a way he hasn't been since his hot streak in the 2000s, Peso in My Pocket is filled with songs so lean that it takes a moment to realize that Keith covers a lot of musical ground here. The time away evidently recharged the singer if Peso in My Pocket is any indication. Toby Keith never stopped working in the 2010s, but by the end of the decade, he seemed kind of adrift, lost in one too many songs about alcohol and taking a full six years to deliver a sequel to his 2015 album 35 MPH Town.
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