Pug Johnson and Alison Krauss & Union Station lead the pack this week.
A most welcome return, and each track here is a pensive, melancholy interpretation that finds her singing at its most emotive. Love the song choices, too. Still, this wants for variety in tempo, dynamic range, and tone. It strikes a lovely note, yes, but just the one.
Of the rising next-gen traditionalists, Johnson’s the first to do something more interesting than what feels like cosplay. This record works as both a travelogue of the titular character and as a collection of radio-ready, twangy (and intermittently Cajun!) AF bangers.
A marvel– and testament to their unimpeachable technique– that she and her PICs somehow sound better than they ever have, and what a surprise that they make their return with a collection of songs that are so thematically dark. If too mid-tempo throughout, it’s a stunner.
Given mainstream country’s pivot toward post-grunge radio rock, it’s at least a little surprising his brand of “dirt emo” hasn’t gotten more traction. The best moments here find Hurd stumbling awkwardly– and with humor and introspection– toward being an adult.
One of the all-time greats is in fine form on a collection that sounds like vintage Stax southern soul. The songs here just aren’t consistently worthy of her talents, though she does elevate even the weakest material with her power and conviction. She’s a treasure.
The AKUS album is so good. I’m glad to hear Alison’s voice still sounding so strong!
Jonathan, question for you and maybe this is a email type question for advice. How many times do you listen to albums before assigning a rating and review?
I have tried to do what you and many other bloggers have done with keeping up with music today but I get either burnt out or just not being able to focus my attention on new music or just get bored with the sound and retreat to old favorites. I don’t believe music from the past is infinitely better than today as I have listened to many albums of country music from each decade and can concure there are some classics but just as many duds.
Do you get burnt out and what’s the best way to counter this and remain focused on the music during a busy time period.
Those are great questions, Tyler!
As a general rule, I won’t post a capsule review if I haven’t listened to an album a minimum of three full times. Even for something I dislike, I want to make sure there wasn’t something worthwhile I missed on the first go. Most of the time, I end up listening more than five times in full before settling on a rating and review. Which is why the reviews I post are always a mix of new releases and things that have been out for a minute.
That pressure to review something by the release date is one of the reasons I know I got burned out during my time writing for Slant. Even when I contribute new reviews there still, there’s now more wiggle room– either I’m able to access a leak well in advance of the release date, or there’s the flexibility to get something posted within a few days after. But that drive to react immediately was always a challenge for me.
So I don’t put the pressure on myself to do that anymore.
I also settled on this capsule review format because there’s an element of challenge to it that I find *fun*. There’s lots of research on gamification as a motivator. Because I am the world’s most long-winded human, to limit myself to the character count set by BlueSky for a single post– or, rarely, to two posts– creates a challenge for me to hone in on what is most essential to say about why an album works or doesn’t, why it’s worthwhile or isn’t.
I also recognize that there is more new music released in any given month than we could ever hope to listen to in a lifetime, and it’s *okay* not to try to hear all of it. I try to cast a wide net here to account for the full scope of our country universe, but I also don’t put pressure on myself to listen to everything or to listen to anything specific on a schedule that others might think is more pressing.
As far as ratings go, I have been purposeful this year in re-centering my bell curve the way I did during my Slant run. In my view, a *** rating is on the positive side of mixed and reflects the fact that, on average, the music that is good enough to get released for public engagement is, in fact, *pretty good* on a base technical level. There are some fan bases who are utterly incapable of understanding that– the Carrie Underwood Stans, in particular, still want me dead– but I think that’s a sound way to approach rating systems. The very high and very low ratings should be reserved for more rare cases, and I think that accounts for some of the “grade inflation” that resulted from what a stellar year 2024 was.