This week’s strongest releases are from Mountain Grass Unit and Steve Slagg.
Sam Barber
Restless Mind
What Zach Bryan hath wrought: Vaguely country but mostly genre-avoidant songwriting and production. A handful of better-than-average phrases peppered throughout the angsty disaffect, but not enough to justify off-key singing that makes Bryan sound like Malo or Stapleton.
Eva Cassidy
Walkin’ After Midnight
A spectacular technical singer and gifted interpreter, so shall she forever be remembered. But there’s something exploitative in the continuous repackaging and remastering of her tragically small recorded output. This set’s fine as-is, but others are more essential.
Dani Rose
Outsiders
How so? This pretty stridently aims for current mainstream attention, with a whole lot of posturing that overwhelms the occasional well-turned phrase or surprising perspective. Her voice is interesting, too, if too often in a losing battle with overbearing production.
Steve Slagg
I Don’t Want to Get Adjusted to This World
Another fine example of how “Americana” would be so much richer if it centered more diverse production aesthetics, and Slagg’s narratives find the faultlines in America’s heartland, foregrounding queer perspectives in his anxieties and uncertainties.
Grayson Capps
Heartbreak, Misery & Death
Gravel-voiced troubadour with a wiseass streak and a gift for pulling country, blues, and rock signifiers into his brand of folk. As ever, he won’t shake the Waits comparisons, but who’d want to? Uneven song selection (“Hallelujah”), but this hits more often than not.
Mountain Grass Unit
Runnin’ From Trouble [EP]
Not counting a self-released set, this debut EP gives a fantastic first impression of this Alabama outfit. The pickin’ is clean, but what impresses most is the heft of their arrangements. These kids pack a wallop. A great addition to this prime ‘grass era.
Father John Misty
Mahashmashana
Wholly dependent on how interested the listener is in his artistic persona and in a solipsistic Viking funeral for that persona. Beyond that, every song here is great until it’s a full two minutes too long. He’s now out of the corner he’d backed into: Where to next?
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