Several four star efforts this week.
The Castellows
Homecoming
A step up from their debut EP, this brief record establishes a clear identity for the sister act. There’s still an oddly flat affect to some of their singing– on the Patty Loveless cover, especially, but what taste!– but the overall vibe here really works.
Sacha
Woman in the Mirror
She’s always been quite good, but here’s where it all really gels for Sacha. There’s a fascinating throughline of learning to trust your own instincts before sharing trust with others, and it’s wrapped up in note-perfect pop-country production and her best singing to date.
If the current moment for 90s country truly embraced the styles of 90s-era women and not just the men, then something that sounds like the best-ever Jo Dee Messina album would turn into a monster hit.
Kat Hasty
The Time of Your Life
There’s a real charm to the homespun aesthetic here, but there’s also a case to be made that Hasty’s ace songwriting (and wobbly singing) could withstand at least a little shine of studio polish. Still, what a remarkable and relatable talent she is.
Zach John King
Slow Down [EP]
Yet another one of This Exact Guy, and I honestly have no idea how anyone distinguishes among any of them anymore. It’s all the terribly-rendered CGI clone army from the dreadful Star Wars prequels, and this EP feels every second as long as one of those.
Sterling Drake
The Shape I’m In
I like this, but there’s something about the stylistic shifts between tracks that’s giving cosplay in a way that’s at least a little off-putting. By the time the Old-Timey Saloon piano hits, the affectation of it all is hard to shake. But so, too, is his obvious skill.
Leslie Jordan
The Agonist
A fascinating exercise in empathy, Jordan sings both about and in the voice of her estranged grandfather, and the subtle shifts in perspective on each song challenge the ideas of how we create narratives about others and who gets centered in those narratives.
Jordan’s effortless vocal style allows her to slip into different characters, and she does some unexpected things with melody that work well within the guardrails of conventional folk structures. A few clunky lyrics, but even those raise interesting meta-textual questions of authorship.
Hogslop String Band
Down the Road
In name only. Their skill with acoustic instruments shines, yes, but they impress for the variety of rackets they make. The songwriting is uneven, but their performances and collaborators (Sierra Ferrell! Margo Price!) carry the day. An act on the rise, for sure.
Cyndi Thomson
Acres of Diamonds [EP]
Oh, to live in the timeline wherein this glorious collection is more of a late-career artistic pivot than a full-on relaunch. Either way, her always-solid writing is even more interesting now, her vocal presence more evocative and distinctive. Great stuff here.
…i get it, america appears to be in a state of augmented dizzyness since january but someone should still have had the good sense to warn mr. king that animals are notorious for stealing the show – even when they’re dead seemingly.
…whoever didn’t stop two 21 and a 19 year old from covering a song that resonates probably most with people age 40 and above failed the promising sister trio big time. …fair enough, for “wide open spaces” they still would have been a little too flat.
…looking forward to looking into sacha’s album.
…still on the fence when it comes to kat hasty’s effort.
…sterling drake’s album is a gem – just not quite sure in which universe.