CLINT BLACK”No Time to Kill” BMG/RCA* *When...

CLINT BLACK

“No Time to Kill”

BMG/RCA

* *

When Black and songwriting partner Hayden Nicholas are in top form, they can turn out a country song as good as they get. This time out, however, they fall short of that form most of the time.

The title tune leads off Black’s fourth album promisingly enough, with an ambitious, stop-and-smell-the-roses tale in which the dazzling wordplay isn’t merely for effect, but also aims to affect: “If we’d known 10 years ago today (that) would be 10 years from now / Would we spend tomorrow’s yesterdays and make it last somehow?” Meanwhile, the song’s melody weaves in and out of major and minor keys like a dirt road through a country wood.

“A Bad Goodbye” is a duet (in which Black and Wynonna Judd turn in shimmering vocals) that actually presents two points of view as well as two singers.

If the rest of the songs touched as deeply, Black might have delivered the out-and-out classic that still seems to be lurking within. Instead, there are institutional ads for music (“State of Mind”) and Texas tourism (“I’ll Take Texas”), predictable testimonials to love and one display of country-music name-dropping (“Tuckered Out”) that doesn’t add up to much, but is awe-inspiring in its sheer audacity.