Have You Forgotten?

Album Review

Darryl Worley started to gain a larger audience in 2002 when his second album, I Miss My Friend, brought him to the top of the country charts, so he was on a career upswing prior to the release of Have You Forgotten? in 2003. Have You Forgotten? contains 16 songs, with six songs apiece from Worley's first two albums, 2000's A Hard Rain Don't Last and the aforementioned I Miss My Friend, which constitute half of each record. Of the four new songs here, three are war-related and the fourth finds the singer stating "I Need a Breather," wishing he was wasting away in a Margaritaville, since he needs a break from "this angry boss man." Worley goes out of his way to align himself with the red, the white, and the blue, standing in front of the stars and stripes on the front cover and posing with troops on the back. Then, of course, there's the flag-waving fervor of "Have You Forgotten?" itself, in which Worley attempts to fuse the anger of Toby Keith with the tear-jerking Alan Jackson. The results feel more calculated than heartfelt, overshadowing the material from his first two albums, material that nonetheless suggests Worley could be a neo-traditional country singer with some real promise.