Single Review Roundup: March 16, 2025

The future of country music is in good hands with Waxahatchee and Ty Myers.

“Mud”

Waxahatchee

Written by Katie Crutchfield

Jonathan Keefe: Every bit as solid as the rest of Tiger’s Blood, this new bonus single from that album’s sessions is another one of Waxahatchee’s songs that pulls off the nifty trick of seeming like it has an actual chorus when, in fact, it’s just one stream-of-consciousness narrative. I don’t know of any other act who pulls that off at all, let alone as one of their trademarks as a songwriter, and what an absolute treasure she is.

The arrangement here is one of the twangiest in her catalog– the guitar tuning on this is just everything– and she leans into her drawl on key lines like, “I’m a glutton for being let down.” Because of how much she gets right here, for a song about a doomed relationship, “Mud” plays out an awful lot like a victory lap. A

Kevin John Coyne: There’s a sense in Waxahatchee’s recent work of an artist that has fully come into their own. “Mud” is fearless in its lyricism and borderline reckless in its vocalizing. Waxahatchee, to borrow an old phrase, sounds as happy as a pig rolling around in mud on this track.

I can see why it was left off of the album, as it doesn’t quite fit in with Tiger’s Blood. But it’s certainly of the same caliber as the best tracks on that album. Waxahatchee is making me feel a bit gluttonous with all this great new music. A

“Ends of the Earth”

Ty Myers

Written by Tyler Myers

 

KJC: I think that this is a spectacular record.

My jaw dropped when I was getting the artwork for this one because I listened to it without having any idea that Myers was a teenage singer. Hearing “Ends of the Earth” reminded me of the first time I heard Paul Brandt’s “My Heart Has a History” or Josh Turner’s “Long Black Train.” Just an instantly distinctive new vocalist with a unique point of view as a songwriter.

I love Myers’ idea of unconditional love, where he’s ready to go to the ends of the earth but he also realizes that it takes two to make that journey. His love is so deep that he’ll also travel alone if that’s what his partner wants, even though he’s praying to every deity that she’s all in on this relationship.

This is the kind of record that makes me hopeful for mainstream country music all over again. A

JK: When I reviewed his (solid enough!) album earlier this year, I noted that there was an element throughout of young Myers sounding like he’s playing dress-up. “End of the Earth” is actually one of the tracks on which that’s less of an issue. If there’s a maturity to the narrative that exceeds his chronological age, he still manages to pull this one off more convincingly than he does some of his others.

If he’s a stock, I’m buying now. But I’m probably diversifying my portfolio of investments, since we’ve certainly been burned by this kind of wünderkind situation before, and Myers is giving at least a little Jonny Lang. “Ends of the Earth” is quite good for what it is, though, and certainly something that I’d happily give a spot on country radio over some of his older-but-not-a-bit-wiser contemporaries. B

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