Pat McAfee Gets Criticism Captured

I Listened to the Pat McAfee Album

Pat McAfee released his debut album, The Diary of a Polarizing Figure on Friday. For the sake of comedy, part of me was hoping it would be terrible, like the outsized ESPN personality version of Dirk Diggler’s studio recordings. Instead it just sounds like, and I’m no music analyst, a regular guy who can carry a tune alright happened to release a pop country album. Is it great? No. Is it horrible? No. It just sort of exists, for reasons I’m unclear on.

The album is a portrait of a man who’s acutely aware of being despised, despite all these Gameday visits to college campuses where he’s received by crowds like a God. The album is not high art, but it does get at something cultural: Almost anyone in the commentary limelight ends up feeling like a confused, hater-obsessed martyr. While The Diary of a Polarizing Figure might not be a genre-defining portal to musical transcendence, it indeed is a sign of the times.