The second single from Brad Paisley’s upcoming Wheelhouse is quite unlike the album’s lead off. While the terrific “Southern Comfort Zone” had its honest-to-goodness nature worn heavily on its uptempo riffs and anthemic veneer, “Beat This Summer” is your more traditional country-infused go-around, but like much of what Paisley is doing with Wheelhouse, its modern country view of today’s world is as warm as its feelgood lyrical musings.

“Southern Comfort Zone” found itself traversing much of the world, overcoming critics of the sometimes self-centric nature of country music- singing about being a good ol’ country boy while having seen the streets of Rome and Paris, never leaving Tennessee at heart. And if that song sang about how not all country music lovers “watch NASCAR” or “owns a gun”, its follow-up is more simplistic and straight forward with its complexion- plenty of mid tempo twang and plucky solos. “Beat This Summer” isn’t as ambitious, but it is a nice alternative, keeping things at home with its allusions of love and summer.

Wheelhouse looks like it could be Paisley’s most ambitious record to date, and the first two singles are a nice indication of the varying scope of its material.