Garth Brooks - Fresh Horses

Garth Brooks' Fresh Horses caught country's biggest star at full gallop, and it still sounds like a man enjoying every minute of the ride.

Released in 1995, his sixth studio album topped the Top Country Albums chart, reached number two on the Billboard 200 and went on to ship eight million copies in the US. Brooks had a hand in writing eight of its ten songs, more than ever before, and called the record a huge reflection of himself. Allen Reynolds, the producer behind his rise, kept the sound rooted firmly in Nashville.

"She's Every Woman" opened the campaign as a tender, easygoing love song, while "The Fever" turns an Aerosmith rocker into a rowdy, rodeo-ready country stomp. "The Beaches of Cheyenne" spins a haunting story-song of loss on the rodeo circuit, and "Ireland" closes the album with a stirring, homesick sweep.

Elsewhere he sings about the band on the road, about cowboys, and about the women who put up with those cowboys, moving easily between barroom swagger and heartfelt balladry. The playing is crisp and warm, full of fiddle, steel and big-hearted choruses.

For anyone who grew up on nineties country radio, this is the arena-sized Garth at his most confident and generous.