5th Gear (2007)

Brad Paisley has some of the best novelty tunes around — not just the hit single ''Ticks'' but also ''Online,'' about a nerd who's ''so much cooler'' on his MySpace page. Elsewhere on 5th Gear, his warm nasality gets the most emotion out of a cornpone aperçu like ''If love was a plane, nobody'd get on.'' Too many tunes stretch beyond four minutes just to demonstrate his guitar prowess; all he needed was the concluding rave-up ''Throttleneck'' for that. But the guy's a vivid nostalgist, and his duet with Carrie Underwood is a harmonic delight. B+DOWNLOAD THIS: Bigger Fish to Fry