60-Second Critic: Jason Aldean, “Laughed Until We Cried”

Aldean, the latest crooner trying to claim the mantle of Kenny Chesney Lite, strolls the Cape May beach and Wildwood Boardwalk with suitable pathos in this video, as he warbles your boilerplate “Weren’t things great back when” country tune from his latest CD, Relentless. While some lyrics (“That senior trip down there on that Panama strip”) clearly aim to throw viewers off the Jersey scent, others — such as “We all started yelling when we smelled the beach/Just couldn’t wait to try our fake IDs” — are dead-on for anyone who spent (or misspent) youthful summers at the Shore. C+