Carter Faith delivers the best debut album in a generation.
Carter Faith
Cherry Valley
The finest mainstream country debut since Miranda’s Kerosene a generation ago, and it’s not particularly close, and daresay this is even better than that record. Clever as all get out and twangy AF, Faith re-sets the bar for the neo-neo-traditionalist insurgency.
Every track contains at least one lyric that’s among the year’s best, as Faith and her PICs (Monroe, Ratiere among them) thoughtfully consider the “last time [she] was happy” over the course of songs that drill deep into the things and people that do and do not bring her happiness and fulfillment.
“You played me like an old six string / And then wonder why I gently weep,” for instance, is an absolute marvel of construction and the kind of purposeful cultural literacy that’s rare in today’s country mainstream songwriting. Faith has all the goods to be a genre-defining superstar. Essential.
Brennen Leigh
Don’t You Give Up On Love
Flawlessly executed traditional country and Western swing, as is her wont. At her best, Leigh brings a modern POV to her chosen aesthetic, making it feel current and vital. This set, though, scans as more purposefully antiquated in its lyrical content. But worth a listen.
Lera Lynn
Comic Book Cowboy
As ever, her brand of self-consciously weird Americana toes the line of being pretentious but, miraculously, stays on the right side of that divide. There are moments on this when the production recalls a twangy take on PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire? and amen to that.
Brian Dunne
Clams Casino
“Play the hits,” he sings early on, and there’s a better timeline in which Dunne’s note-perfect brand of clever, hook-forward roots rock made him a triple-A or Hot AC star. I’d lost sight of him for a run of a few albums but won’t make that mistake again.
Lauren Watkins
In a Perfect World
After a promising 2024 debut album, this is an exercise in significant regressions: Toward the mean in terms of songwriting quality, toward a POV that’s too often a reflection of / dependence on a man. The innate talent’s still there, but this is a disappointment.
INK
Big Buskin’
An exhilarating if too brief listen, this set establishes her as far more than just a go-to hitmaker for other artists. Her command of country songwriting conventions is unimpeachable, and she’s a commanding presence on record who backs up every bit of her swagger.
And there’s clearly a conversation to be had as to why Big Loud isn’t pouring its resources into centering her within the country mainstream the way Shaboozey– surprisingly enough– has been. The bangers on this ought to be on every playlist “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was and is still on.
Various Artists
It’s All Her Fault: A Tribute to Cindy Walker
Tributes can be a mixed bag, but executive producer and curator Grey DeLisle, hot on the heels of her own banger of a solo record, only enlisted artists who would 100% understand this exact assignment. The covers here are to-a-one inspired performances, arrangements.
Walker has long deserved a tribute of this caliber, and credit to DeLisle for her genre savvy and steady hand in making this go. And this murderer’s row of women (Rosie Flores! Kelly Willis! Kimmi Bitter! Amythyst Kiah!) highlights both the depth and breadth of Walker’s multi-generation influence.
HARDY
COUNTRY! COUNTRY!
A DREADFUL SINGER WITH AN 80LB CHIP ON HIS SHOULDER, HE SPENDS THE DURATION OF THIS SHREDDING HIS ADENOIDS ON DIVISIVE POLEMICS ABOUT ACTIVELY WISHING ILL ON CITYFOLK HE’S VERY SURE SPEND A LOT MORE TIME THINKING OF WAYS TO THREATEN HIS LIFESTYLE THAN THEY REALLY DO.
SO HE SINGS LITERAL FANTASIAS OF FORCING HIS STEREOTYPE-ONLY VISION OF “COUNTRY!” LIFE ON OTHER PEOPLE WHILE ALSO LAMENTING HOW HE’S BEING JUDGED UNFAIRLY. AND THEN HE TACKS ON A COUPLE OF SONGS ABOUT UNIVERSAL CONNECTIONS THAT WOULD RING AS HOLLOW EVEN IF HIS SCHTICK WEREN’T SO SELF-CONTRADICTORY.
IT’S A BILLION YEARS-LONG ALBUM THAT OPENLY VIEWS “A COUNTRY BOY CAN SURVIVE” AS ASPIRATIONAL, DERIDES ALL CRITICS OF HIS PRIOR WORK, AND PERPETUATES NOTHING BUT UGLY US-VS-THEM CONFLICT AS THOUGH IT’S A VIRTUE, ALL SET TO THE MOST BANAL AUGHTS BUTTROCK.
SO YES, IT IS “COUNTRY COUNTRY” c. 2025.
Wynn Williams
Country Therapy
Another Pledge from the TX public university pipeline, Williams is going for the Zach vibe of Top, rather than Bryan. To his credit, he actually has a fantastic singing voice he could do something with, and the 90s production is solid. But these songs, y’all.
The title track is a horror that promotes drinking as superior to therapy, and the throughline in most of the rest of it is the unearned confidence of a 20-something white guy who is very sure he doesn’t need to reflect on anything or be open to change. Timely as an example of How We Got Here.
Colbie Caillat
This Time Around
The most banal singer-songwriter of her generation continues this bizarre attempt to retcon herself as a country act, this time around by re-recording her featherweight hits and a few new, equally mid songs with country folk who ought to know better. Utterly inessential.
Lily Rose
I Know What I Want
Rose is good enough that I want this album to be far better than it is. There’s a running theme here of resilience in the face of rejection that’s interesting in the context of her career arc to date. But it’s too often buried in dated Bro-country sounds, middling lyrics.
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