Arizona-born country crooner Dierks Bentley came along as one of several total-package male stars with good looks, talent and tunes in spades. While Bentley can't shred or sing like Brad Paisley or Keith Urban, his skills as a songwriter became his saving grace. It's that devotion to carefully crafted arrangements, structure and melody that mostly comes through on his latest "Feel That Fire," a safe continuation and showcase of Bentley's abilities.

As on his earlier releases, Bentley is wearing many hats; stepping into the roles of hard-living rebel ("Life on the Run"), sensitive lover ("I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes") and humble servant to the Man upstairs ("Better Believer"). He burns brightest as the latter two on "Feel That Fire," an album that blends bits of bluegrass, rock and pop into songs that are easy to latch on to. Even though Bentley's voice is his least effective weapon, the honesty and sincerity comes through big on self-analyzing rock spirituals like "Better Believer" and the triumphant mid-tempo romance of "You Hold Me Together." He manages to hold his own on a pretty effective duet with none other than Patty Griffin on the slow optimism of "Beautiful World" and finds the will to forgive on the post-heartbreak ballad "Pray."

The musicianship from his backing players is superior throughout, especially the bluegrass boogie of the final track "Last Call." But it's on the fun-loving tracks that Bentley has his slip-ups. He gets people dancing with the country grooves of "Sideways," but when he tries to rock hard on "Life on the Run," he comes off sounding like a bad version of Metallica if they grew up jamming on Lower Broad. Other tracks like "Here She Comes, Here We Go" try to be as catchy and memorable as "What Was I Thinkin'" but come up way short.

For the most part, Bentley's songs remain the same. Luckily for us, those songs are still pretty good.