One of the Boys (2007)

''I know I don't act much like a lady/But I still need to be somebody's baby,'' Gretchen Wilson sings on the title track of One of the Boys, establishing that some gender differences remain sacred even when the cussing and tobacco chewing are coed. Not as perfect as her 2004 debut (what could be?), but a step up from its follow-up, Boys neatly balances the makeup-sex sensitivity of ''Come to Bed'' with the after-hours rowdiness of ''There Goes the Neighborhood.'' Peak skirmish-of-the-sexes moment: ''If You Want a Mother,'' which hilariously cracks the whip on a babied lover.

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