A dozen new releases are reviewed this week.
Lainey Wilson
Whirlwind
Her solid enough talent’s been wildly oversold, and her taste has always been questionable, and this album finds her buckling a little under the Heavy Is The Head pressure. She fares best w the introspective cuts, wobbles when she’s overacting the genre cosplay.
Don Louis
Liquor Talkin’
A few of the beats, a few of the lyrical tropes are a little too pedestrian to hold up to Louis’ massive presence on this record. His gravelly, deep baritone is a revelation, equally at home on the more straight-ahead country tracks and the more R&B-leaning bangers.
Drew Green
Whiskey On Whiskey [EP]
The songwriting is every last Bro-era cliché, and the sound is deadass Mike Posner’s Timberlake knockoff debut record from 2010, which we’re apparently supposed to believe is “country” now, and some days, I’m just so, so tired.
Maggie Antone
Rhinestoned
To share an album title with one of Pam Tillis’ best records is a real flex, but Antone is nothing if not a wonder of gumption. Hers is an immediately singular voice and POV: She is simultaneously of-this-moment and out-of-time, and she embraces that dichotomy.
Roberta Faceplant
Yee Haw Stuff [EP]
They lean the entire way into the notion of country performance as a type of drag revue, and this outfit never once loses control of or respect for what they’re doing. It’s like Southern Culture On The Skids crossed with Laura Bell Bundy. A cowpunk miracle.
Xan DuBose
Black & White
Taps a similar vein as Norah Jones, which is always a fine idea. Like Jones’ best, DuBose’s brand of jazz-inflected pop is most interesting when she incorporates some country signifiers, either narratively or in the production. She has a beautiful vocal tone, too.
Joe Ely
Driven to Drive
He’s remained so spry for so long that the feistiness of the best of these tracks isn’t a surprise, per se, but it’s still refreshing that he refuses the easy mantle of an Elder Statesman type. His peers turned boring ages ago, but that’s not his aim.
Post Malone
F-1 Trillion
Skip Wallen on principle, McGraw and Paisley on quality, and it’s fine, if overly strident in his desire to craft a record that rarely aspires to more than sounding just like the last half-decade of radio country. Telling, really, that the solo tracks fare best.
Cecily Wilborn
Kuntry Girl Playlist
The way I lost my entire mind when she drawled, “Big Mama gon’ fix you a plate.” A few too many familiar snaptracks in the production, but this is otherwise a triumph of modern country-soul bangers from a phenomenal singer who deserves the whole world.
Ray LaMontagne
Long Way Home
Skip the horrific opening track, and it quickly settles into LaMontagne’s signature aesthetic of mellow, occasionally twanging Americana. Only a handful of more inspired songs take stronger hold of attention on what’s otherwise just consistently solid.
Dan Tyminski
Live From the Ryman
Not the first “Ryman” live set to be marred by inconsistent quality in the audio mixing, this doesn’t always capture Tyminski’s very best work. He’s a compelling live performer, but this often sounds subdued or buries his lead vocals.
Muscadine Bloodline
The Coastal Plain
Uneven, but it’s high praise, indeed, that the best moments of this rival peak Drive-By Truckers for the regional specificity of their vernacular and respect for their narrators. And the rowdy arrangements follow suit, of course.
I was surprised that I enjoy the Lainey Wilson album, particularly “Keeping Up with Jones” and “Ring Finger”. They’re silly, but I can’t help but love the ridiculousness of them.
Leeann!!!
There are definitely some songs on the Wilson album that I like a lot– “Keeping Up With Jones” is probably the best uptempo track on the whole shebang. On balance, I described “Whiskey Colored Crayon” on BlueSky as, “the most mawkish horseshit I’ve heard from an A-lister since Martina McBride’s peak era,” so the album as a whole really didn’t click for me. Some highlights, for sure, but not an album that’ll be in contention for my year-end in what’s really been a tremendous year, even for mainstream country albums.
Oh, Yes, “Wiskey Colored Crayon” would’ve gotten me as an adolescent, but it’s definitely “Chicken Soup for the Soul” level cringe!