Double Live

PREMISE The bug-eyed king of arena country, captured live on 25 tracks between 1991 and ’98. “For Garth, what the tour has been about is simple — people,” says a press release.

REAL PREMISE What the album is about is simple, too: It’s Brooks’ bid to fulfill his obsessively demented goal of selling more records than the Beatles — courtesy of a counts-as-two double CD that could give him the extra 20 or so mil he needs.

REASON WE LIKE LIVE ALBUMS All the hits (the best delivered with more punch than the original studio takes), plus pristine audio quality better than any muddy arena PA system

REASON WE HATE LIVE ALBUMS The roaring audience is even louder and more obnoxious than the screaming teens on The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (coincidence?), and when they’re not cheering, they’re singing along — sometimes throughout entire songs. Didn’t we pay to hear Garth sing?

SAMPLE PATTER “Yeah!” “Awright!” and other demonstrations of Brooks’ aw-bucks enthusiasm

SHOCKING REVELATION Numerous studio overdubs, including a choir. No wonder everything sounds so perfect.