Tony Martinez and Shawna Thompson lead a mixed bag of new releases.
Miranda Lambert
Postcards From Texas
I’ll die on the hill that she’s the most significant new artist of my lifetime, such that what is obviously her second-weakest album still shames others’ peaks. Too much of this relies on subtext-as-literal-text lyrics and schticky humor her best writing deftly avoids.
Shawna Thompson
Lean On Neon
In the strongest year for pure trad-country in decades, Thompson has shown up damn near everybody. Great songs, classically styled, sung brilliantly solo and with like-minded friends. She says it’s the album she always wanted to make, and it sounds like that’s true.
Josh Kerr
a year & some change
A well-written if blandly produced title track isn’t enough to overcome what’s otherwise an album that sounds like the inevitable result of a generation who grew up being told and actually believing Thomas Rhett is talented.
Troy Cartwright
Bygones
A couple of moments to suggest he may be capable of more than being just another one of These Guys Who All Sound Exactly Like This. But here we are.
Tony Martinez
Everywhere West
Wild and wooly in all the best ways, this long-time-coming solo debut captures one truly incorrigible spirit. Martinez’s brand of optimism comes with dirty hands and scuffed-up boots and nary an apology for his rowdy ways. And Yelawolf produced the hell out of this.
Jenna Paulette
Horseback
Some phenomenal songwriting collabs on this collection, which again begs the question of why she isn’t a bigger star. This is another 90s-sounding record that matches the era’s quality; no surprise then that the best cuts were co-written with women (Matraca Berg, Ashley McBryde, Liz Rose.)
Chase Wright
Letting Go
Utterly anonymous in every way an album can be: Boilerplate Music Row songwriting that’s neither inspired nor insulting, production that spans Bro-, Boyfriend-, Nickelback- Country phases equally, and singing and half-rapping that’s never more or less than competent.
Jackson Dean
On the Back of My Dreams
A couple of absolute bangers (“Duck Tape Heart”), but a whole lot of overwrought, oversung Jackson Maine B-sides. If he’d drop the mealy-mouthed affectations, he’d have one of the better rock voices of this current lot, but he still needs stronger songwriting partners.
Laci Kaye Booth
The Loneliest Girl in the World (Acoustic Sessions) [EP]
Instead of putting the focus on her songs, which I noted earlier this year are often exceptional, this acoustic set foregrounds her singing, which I noted earlier this year… well… Still, she’s an interesting writer worth keeping tabs on.
Laura Jane Grace and the Mississippi Medicals
Give an Inch [EP]
Grace and this crew are best when they get real twangy with it: “RazorBlade Blues” and “All Fucked Out” match any country x punk Hank III ever envisioned. A few lapses in lyrical focus, sure, but I still want a full album of this queer anarcho-country.
MJ Lenderman
Manning Fireworks
I love Pavement. I love country music. Hell, I love(d) Clem Snide, who tried to stake out the same midpoint between those A and B endings that Lenderman tries to stake out here. I get why he’s having a moment, but I only think these songs work intermittently.
Shemekia Copeland
Blame it On Eve
The of-the-moment feminism and political outrage here are so well served by her indomitable presence on record: There’s a bit of a punk sneer in her sharpest line readings here, too. A few of Kimbrough’s production choices lack heft, but that’s really a minor quibble.
Danielle Bradbery
Danielle
A decade in, and she still has no idea who she wants to be as an artist. As ever, she has a lovely vocal tone, but that’s not enough to overcome these frankly embarrassing attempts at urban pop. I’m no purist, but not one nanosecond of this is country music. Dreadful.
Corey Kent
Black Bandana
On the few moments when he resists market pressure and drops the unnatural, affected rasp, Kent has a voice that’s actually quite pleasant and daresay impressive. Even on those moments, though, he’s using it to sing material that’s mostly sub-par Music Row fodder.
The Deslondes
Roll it Out
They’ve always been very good, but this record is the most they’ve ever sounded like an on-purpose, honest-to-God band. That they do so without losing any of their loose-limbed, ramshackle charm is a wonder, indeed. This one ought to break them much bigger.
I have been mulling over what to say in re: Thomas Rhett since I saw the review of his album last week, and i finally got it.
a generation who grew up being told and actually believing Thomas Rhett is talented.
I hear the term ”nepo baby” used here and there. At least sometimes I don’t think it’s fair to the people who are referred to as such. But in regards to Thomas Rhett, I think that term is absolutely spot-on. I have thought multiple times over the years that he’d be manning the cash register at a Valdosta gas station were it not for his dad’s money and connections.
Speaking of the younger Akins, Jonathan, I remember you <a href="https://www.countryuniverse.net/2015/08/31/single-review-danielle-bradbery-friend-zone/”)noted once that Danielle Bradbery’s ambition was to be ”the female Thomas Rhett.” Could it be that is still the case?
Country for sure has a long history with Nepo Babies. There’s a long list– headed up by Pam Tillis, Rosanne Cash, multiple Hank Williams descendants– who absolutely have the talent and star quality to have made it on their own.
And, well, then there’s Thomas Rhett (and, I’d also argue, his contemporary, Hillary Scott). Whose commercial success and industry acclaim is so wildly disproportionate to his actual skill set that it serves as a prime example of the negative Nepo Baby discourse over the last few years. And now we’re seeing the likes of this Josh Kerr kid, aspiring to sound just like Rhett, and it’s as disheartening as it was inevitable.
I thought about that Bradbery quote, too. While “Friend Zone”– still a steaming pile, for what it’s worth– at least made some quarter-assed nods in the direction of country music, like Rhett’s output, there’s nothing of the sort on this new album of hers. To my ears, it’s a pretty bald-faced and inept attempt to emulate the sound of current R&B acts like Normani and Chloe (Bailey, of Chloe x Halle). It’s clear no one in the industry ever truly invested in A&R development around Bradbery to help her develop any kind of maturity as an artist: They just threw a shitton of money at her, hoping to capitalize on what people mistakenly believed about the early seasons of The Voice as a star-making platform.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Bradbery had one top 15 radio hit a decade ago, nothing even close to that since, and has somehow retained a record deal. Chapel Hart never got so much as a *promotion* or *publishing* deal from Music Row and has stated that they’ve basically given up on their dreams of mainstream success.