Coming off of 5 consecutive #1 singles and a CMA Male Vocalist honor one would think Blake Shelton would have a finely crafted “sound” to draw off of and keep producing #1 hits.  And yet with each release Shelton seems to keep mixing his sound up.  His first two singles from Red River Blue featured a straight up contemporary number and a ballad that would fit in at AC or even pop.  His latest offering though, “Drink On It” is an easy-listening charmer that sees Shelton trying to pick up a woman at a bar.  The storyline is fairly straight-forward, Shelton sees a woman leaving the bar and tries desperately to pick her up by offering to “drink on it.”  His true motives are made fairly clear a few lines later though, when he proclaims, “Maybe later on we can sleep on it.”  Hey, at least he’s honest.

The mixture of a somewhat cheesy melody and a somewhat sleazy narrator does make the song kind of fun, even though the hook seems to be trying a bit too hard.  The lyrics are somewhat undeveloped, and it’s a bit hard to believe his pick-up line works, but it does enough to drive home the song’s message.  Shelton has done a fine job of mixing 80’s style music with country in the past, his Starting Fires record comes to mind, and he seems to be trying that again here, though a few more country elements would’ve been welcomed.  Overall it’s a solid, but slightly underwhelming track, the kind that you sing along to without even realizing it’s playing on the radio.  It’s unlikely to be anyone’s favorite song of 2012, but it’s a harmless tune that should catch the ear of the casual listener, and should give Shelton a fair chance to continue his streak at the top of the charts.