Cat Clyde leads a mixed bag of new releases.
2 Lane Summer
Flawless
A Dan+Shay album, if Shay Mooney was aspiring to sing like an early-aughts youth minister instead of Gary LeVox. This is what happens when you aim low and hit your target, and it’s scraping the very bottom of Music Row’s barrel.
Cat Clyde
Mud Blood Bone
Clyde’s never stitched her diverse influences together into something as cohesive and compelling as she has on this new career peak album. The most thrilling moments (“Press Down,” “Wanna Ride”) marry punk and blues ferocity to honky-tonk forms that place Clyde at the midpoint between Wanda Jackson and Exene Cervenka, but with even greater vocal range and power, and hallelujah.
The quieter tracks are no less captivating, highlighting Clyde’s gifts for introspection, gallows humor. Even in the alt-country revival, this set occupies a unique space.
Mikaela Davis
Graceland Way
Another standout alt-country record for ’26, Davis’ third and best album to date is giving The Globe Sessions, and that’s always a welcome gift. What the polished set lacks in innovation, it more than makes up for with Davis’ top-notch quality writing and singing.
Benjamin Tod
Vengeance & Grace
His artistic ambitions continue to impress– he’s going for a concept album, released here in both full-band and acoustic variations– as much as they continue to exceed the ceiling of his natural talents and to be undermined by the shitposter vibe of his public persona. The inconsistency of his songwriting– individual tracks here include both sharp and howlingly awful lines– and his off-pitch Colin Meloy yelp of a voice both need very real technical work. If he puts that work in, he could be as great as he already insists he is.
Souled American
sanctions
Venerable alt-country titans (yes, really) haven’t lost a step. What’s impressive about this set is how, despite a 30 year recording hiatus, they still sound ahead of their time when it comes to their singular brand of knotty, proto-bootgaze. Welcome back, fellas.
Drivin N Cryin
Crushing Flowers
Venerable alt-country titans haven’t lost a step. What’s impressive about this set is how purposefully frayed the edges of the arrangements are, in ways that sound on-trend for what their direct descendants (Ratboys, MJ Lenderman, et al) have been doing with their form.
Ringo Starr
Long Long Road
Ringo as Elder Americana Statesman remains better in concept than in execution, though this second collaboration with T Bone Burnett is a modest improvement over its predecessor, thanks to fewer songs on this set that would embarrass most other artists of his stature.
Brooke Lee
Desert Darling [EP]
Lee’s brand of slick, modern pop-country would elevate most any radio playlist. The title track and especially “Burn to Black” are hits in a better universe where the genre makes space for a raspy-voiced woman who knows how to write a hook and sing on key.
And, as ever, there’s an entire Dr. Jada Watson type thesis to be written about the number of talented women who are limited to recording EPs when there’s a legion of middling This Exact Guy who get to release multiple albums without a streaming or radio hit to justify the investment.
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