Three near perfect efforts lead the pack this week, courtesy of Willi Carlisle, James McMurtry, and Jessica Willis Fisher.
Cole Swindell
Spanish Moss
Fair to say it’s his best album, and just as fair to say no one should overestimate the height of his ceiling. Twice as long as it needs to be, this does still have about 10 tracks that allow him to operate well within his severely limited range.
Willi Carlisle
Winged Victory
At once more accessible and more confrontational than was the extraordinary Critterland, this finds our country-folk hero leaning hard into narratives that champion the marginalized and the underclasses with a rare combo of empathy and savage humor. Essential.
Myron Elkins
Nostalgia For Sale
As with his debut record, I love the songwriting and love the overall vibe. But his mealy-mouthed vocal style and adenoidal tone are really just not for me. Niche comparison is to Eli Cook, an upstart from years back who I wish had spent some time with a vocal coach.
Presley Haile
Off to Find a Sunny Day [EP]
The guarded optimism of these songs is well-matched to her gifts for a melody and a hook, and the warmth of her vocal tone is uncommon for her generation of singer-songwriters. An auspicious if too brief set that augurs well for a full-length debut.
James McMurtry
The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
Aesthetically, he still operates in a single mode that is perhaps too much of a draw to authenticity fetishists, but he executes within that mode to a level that few other artists ever have. This is a career-best collection of dense, fascinating narratives.
Jenna Davis
Where Did That Girl Go
Her debut EP, 2024’s SIKE, was at least memorably awful, whereas this is just badly sung, written, and produced in ways that are all too familiar for 2025’s mainstream country. It doesn’t even merit a M3G4N joke, and the big-name collaborators here should know better.
Jessica Willis Fisher
Blooming
The candor and vulnerability she shows on this song cycle about healing, thriving in the aftermath of unspeakable trauma is just a wonder. That she sets it all to such perfectly rendered, ‘grassy pop-country makes this one of the year’s finest albums.
Brett Young
2.0
Alas, the new model sings in the same wounded raccoon voice as the original, just with a 100% increase in traditional country flourishes behind him to see if this Murderbot, slightly convincing when feigning pathos, will sell in a market that had soured on his prior offerings.
Chris Lane
Shade Tree
Marginal bro- and boyfriend-country trend-hopper responsible for some of those eras’ most noxious singles now tries his hand at the 90s country trend, and it lays bare how utterly out of his depth he is. There’s no artistic persona here stable enough to hang a tire swing on.
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