Kane Brown leads the pack with his strongest album to date.
Kapali Long
The Routines [EP]
Songwriting could stand a bit more polish– there are some distracting breaks in the meter throughout– but Long’s is a distinctive POV, and the clarity of his vocal tone impresses. Sonically, there’s an accessibility here that’s primed for broad appeal.
The Doohickeys
All Hat No Cattle
I always go back to the idea that irony is corrosive when it comes to things like this, but sakes alive, is this duo ever talented enough to get away with an awful lot. Helps that a good % of the jokes land, but even more so that they’re both sneaky good singers.
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, and Karine Polwart
Looking For the Thread
Each individual song here is lovely and thoughtful, if about a minute too long. Over the album’s length, the dogged seriousness and overly somber aesthetic becomes a chore that undercuts this trio’s talents. So… par for latter-day MCC, basically.
Ty Myers
The Select
Even when this feels like a kid playing (very convincing) dress-up, there’s a whole world of promise here. Already an impressive talent, Myers has the makings of a superstar once his voice and POV really mature. Here’s hoping he’s surrounded by good folks until then.
Kane Brown
The High Road
The best example to date of how the road Brown travels elevates him above his mainstream peers. It’s in the way he sings about others as complete humans and shows genuine interest in their interior lives.
As reactionary politics and a fierce anti-intellectualism get centered in the country mainstream, it’s legitimately important that one of the genre’s A-listers is someone who shows a sincere curiosity about other humans. Everyone he sings about on this album is a person described as having agency. That matters far more than the need to edit a few filler tracks.
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