Kid Rock is back at it again with the release of his ninth studio album, Rebel Soul, which came out Nov. 19. Although this may have several of you rolling your eyes, the 14-track album is quite a pleasant surprise.

Contrary to some of his past musical creations, you won’t find anything similar to Bawitdaba or American Bad Ass. With the exception of one track, Cucci Galore, Kid Rock has shed his rapper image and fully taken on a rock/country sound.

Don’t you worry, you’ll still get your fix of Kid Rock raunchiness. He manages to create quite the explicit compilation, regardless of the style.

I have to admit I was a bit hesitant to listen to the entire album when I saw each song exceeded three minutes in length, but after hearing the old rock sound of the first track, Chickens in the Pen, my interest level peaked and I was very pleased that my curiosity got the best of me.

I appreciate the rock and roll/R&B sound of the album, especially in 3 CATT Boogie. It’s no shocker that Kid Rock doesn’t follow social norms, and I can’t thank him enough for that in regard to this album. It’s refreshing to hear a song without a dubstep bass drop or electronica-pop chorus. He does attempt in The Mirror to have some type of up-to-date, oddly engineered voice, but there always has to be one, right?

Even though we’re far gone from those warm summer days, this album, especially Redneck Paradise, makes me want to break out my lawn chair, barbeque something on the grill and, like the song says, “drink beer and dance all night, that’s right.”

Kid Rock’s still got it (with a large improvement, I may add). This album has earned a spot on my finals study week playlist, hands down.