Sixteen new releases are reviewed this week, with the best sets courtesy of Rachel Porter and Moe Reen.
Molly Tuttle
So Long Little Miss Sunshine
An aesthetic pivot that she executes with finesse, this eclectic set plays like her very own Eras Tour, is a fine example of what “pop-country” can and should sound like in 2025. She never sounded constrained by Bluegrass, but the full breadth of her talent shines.
Kent Burnside
Hill Country Blood
Grandson of genre all-timer RL Burnside continues to do his bloodline proud on his best album to date. That his original tunes hold up alongside well-chosen John Lee Hooker and Junior Kimbrough covers says a lot about the thoughtfulness and skill in his craft.
Jordan Davis
Learn the Hard Way
For someone whose star continues a very, very slow ascent, he still has no identity whatsoever. In terms of banal contemporary country songwriting and production tropes, this couldn’t feel more rote, distinctive only because he’s a middling tenor, not a middling baritone.
Erick Lindeman
Not Your Typical Country Boy [EP]
True, in the sense that contestants from The Voice: Holland are rare in the US country space. Also true in the sense that he has a terrific singing voice, which is atypical in 2025. But there is no getting around the songwriting and production, which are as dreadful as that AI cover art.
Rebecca Porter
Roll With the Punches
On the radar for years, Porter absolutely cooks on this full-length debut. She leans into her unique history with a clarity of purpose and a real knack for a wide range of trad and contemporary country styles. And her voice, y’all. The proper arrival of a major talent.
Jake Henley
County Fairs & Rodeos
Sturdy, workmanlike country-rock tunes– this never sounds more or less than perfectly fine. It shouldn’t be so revelatory for a newer guy to be able to carry an actual tune this well, but that’s just the reality of where we are right now.
Gavin Adcock
Own Worst Enemy
When you think Outlaw Country just means acting a right fool for attention to try to mask your incompetent singing and bankrupt Big Lots sounding tracks that no one in their right mind would give the time of day otherwise. What’s hopefully the bottom of this rotten barrel.
Jay Webb
Where to Find Me
When it comes to the exact sound of 2025 radio country, this is likely close to the peak of what that style can offer. Webb imagines if Jelly Roll were a good singer whose entire vibe wasn’t that he’s like three years away from opening a suburban Nashville megachurch.
Hayes Carll
Were Only Human
Coming the heels of the raucous “& The Heathens” project, the production here is perhaps just a little too subdued and predictable Americana. Still, the empathy and wit of his songwriting shine on a set that ponders the weirdness and alienation of this cultural moment.
Moe Reen
Scribbled Line
Their vocal timbre and phrasing are giving Bluegrass, while their songs are steeped in pure country and folk conventions. But that’s where conventional stops, as Reem brings their truly singular POV to narratives that are anything but straightforward and linear.
Joleen Brown
A Good Place to Hide Away
If some of the seedier elements of these narratives come across as too strident, Brown still impresses for the candor and overall craft of her writing. She has a cool, distinctive singing voice, too: A regional artist with the goods for a far bigger audience.
Charley Crockett
Dollar a Day
His collaboration with Shooter Jennings resulted in his worst album to date literally just weeks ago, so the extent to which he and Jennings rebound here is a legit shock. Better songs. Better production– the vintage R&B inflections work. Better (on pitch!) singing.
Buddy Guy
Ain’t Done With the Blues
And praise be for that, really. There’s nothing here that strays far from his trademark formula, nor is there any real impetus for such things at this point. The Blind Boys of Alabama collab is the best of the guest spots by some margin on this victory lap of a set.
Tanner Ursey
These Days
He continues to find his voice as both a very-good singer and a solid enough songwriter within a rootsy, soulful brand of modern country. Best of all, this set boasts Dave Cobb’s most robust and least grayscale production in a minute, and Ursey fully holds his own.
Ashley Monroe
Tennessee Lightning
At least a partial return to form for one of the genre’s modern titans. The risks she takes on this set pay off more often than not, though there are still some moments, as on her last couple of albums, when her affect seems atypically flattened.
At her best, there’s an intimacy and rawness to her performances and her songwriting, so that disaffect may work in isolated moments, but it doesn’t play to her unique strengths for longer stretches. Where this set shines is in its idiosyncratic songs that remain grounded in country conventions.
Bailey Zimmerman
Different Night Same Rodeo
There’s not a second of this that even tries to shake this Pledge Week star’s comparisons to Wallen. So: He’s somehow an even worse singer but a marginally better half-rapper, and at least a few tracks (the Luke Combs hit, especially) that are just as well-produced.
But to shake those Wallen comparisons would require both looking to someone other than already-failed Wallen knockoff Tucker Beathard (Remember his atrocious singles from five years ago?) as one of his go-to songwriters, plus an attempt to edit down an 18-song monstrosity of an album.
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