"This second LP since George Strait's retirement from touring - his 30th studio LP - is a trip back to when country radio didn't suck as a rule: Eighties pop shine cut with pedal steel/fiddle poetry, Texas swing, cantina blues and achingly-crooned nostalgia that generally doesn't feel hard sell, even when things gets treacly ... Which of course, they do. But "The Weight of the Badge" is a good-cop tribute that feels legit despite a whiff of Fox News human interest story"