Chris Housman and Carly Pearce are this week’s AOTY contenders.
Alabama Shakes
I Must Be Dreaming
Thrilling to have them back, though there’s noticeable rust here in terms of sounding like this band at their peak. “The personal is political” is a critical cliché, yes, but it’s very much the theme of their catalog, and Howard’s at her righteous best here.
Kam Franklin
Land of the Neon Sun
Add Franklin to the long list of WOC who understand Americana as a construct first and a genre label as a far distant second. The most country-adjacent numbers here fly highest, but she’s not one to entertain such restrictions, and she makes this full-length debut count.
David Nail
Flowers
Collaborating with Anderson East brings him back in a more country-adjacent direction after quite some time in a moody adult-pop lane. That era was undercut by a weird streak of mean-spiritedness in his writing, and that’s gone now, too. A solid effort at recentering on this one.
Lauren Alaina
Stages
The production imitates the worst of Music Row’s current trends (dated 808s, snap tracks, Chase Matthew), while a whole lot of the songwriting adopts a truly antediluvian POV. The grotesque single that waxes nostalgic about literally hitting children is on here and it’s merely a dogwhistle compared to some of the other lyrics.
To her credit, she’s still prone to a clever wordplay, and she’s finally put in the work to improve her poor breath control and phrasing. Beyond that, this plays as a desperate effort to cling to Nashville’s B-list.
Billy Strings
So Much For Goodbyes
As a musician and an entertainer, he’s a generational talent whose skills continue to deepen. As a songwriter, he’s still finding his way. The highlights here include some career-best writing, but there are quite a few tracks on this record that should’ve been cut.
Chris Housman
Dodge City
Thoughtfully-written and expertly-performed pop-country bangers from start to finish, this builds upon the charm attack of 2024’s BLUENECK with a greater sense of purpose and with some ace fiddle playing from Housman, to boot. The throughline is about finding or creating intentional spaces to live authentically– and not in the gatekeeping sense promoted by authenticity fetishists, who are notably silent or dismissive when it comes to artists who speak similar truths to Housman’s– or getting the hell out of Dodge (city).
Housman ties that message to songs that are, to a one, a marvel of construction and craft and of genre know-how. He’s as capable of layering hooks upon hooks upon hooks as he is of dropping a stunning “Tennessee Waltz,” and he’s another artist who shows today’s country music at its inclusive best.
The Wilder Blue
Cinco
Enlisting outside help for production, songwriting for the first time in no way diminishes how strong their identity is: This is just a degree or two more slick and accessible than their earlier work, but their five-part vocal harmonies, ace musicianship still shine.
Zach John King
I’m What You Get
It’s the drawing-a-horse meme of Morgan Wallen albums.
Carly Pearce
Honest Woman
The rare-for-her-generation ‘albums artist’ both for her ability to bring the POVs of Yearwood, Loveless, and Tillis to bear as a woman who lives without apology and for the absolute necessity of studio assistance to mask the very real technical limitations of her singing.
To her credit, Pearce doesn’t pander to current trends to try to regain a spot on radio playlists. Instead, she doubles down on her narrative voice in ways that highlight the forthright perspective that led Music Row to turn on her so quickly in favor of Wilson, Moroney, and Langley.
She doesn’t play coy when it comes to singing about sex, she challenges how modern country incorporates evangelical doctrine, and she sings openly about how the phone stops ringing when the industry sidelines you because you won’t stop airing the “one big family’s” dirty laundry.
Hers is the version of “honest” that gets women branded as “difficult,” and she knows that and owns it with a real sense of power and agency over the course of this album. Praise be to the ProTools that can get her on pitch in the studio, because it’s her voice as a writer that’s most important.
Little Big Town
Dying Art
A lifetime ago, their egalitarian showcasing of their vocal talents, musicality, and sense of fun elevated the country mainstream. Those virtues have been leaching out of their work for years now, leaving behind a deadly dull self-seriousness.
The best that can be said for this album is that the production sounds better than their late-2010s run of albums that were slathered in too much reverb, and there are a handful of songs that would have been fine album tracks on an album with any real range in dynamics, tone, or tempo.
Moreover, If I’m Phil and ‘Berly, I’m asking myself why I’m still clocking into work at all. Their excellent voices are audible on exactly one track apiece on what is largely a solo record for Karen Fairchild. She’s a tremendous vocalist, yes, but the shared vocal duties, harmony made LBT sing.
I did the (probably) thankless task of revisiting the current albums by country radio’s Top 3 women (Langley, Moroney and Wilson) to try to find a reason why they’re the ones enjoying “privileged” airplay status, if you will, at the moment. Wilson, the reigning is a perfectly fine vocalist, inargubaly the strongest of those three, and she’s released some perfectly fine singles (enough to justify the eleventy hundred awards she’s racked up from the CMAs and ACMs? Uh, no). Moroney’s Cloud 9 is a very well constructed album; it’s even got three or four very solid tracks that I didn’t mind at all (I really like the country-leaning Medicine and the Swiftian knock off Wish I Didn’t). Sadly, Miranda Lambert’s cameo on the otherwise lamentable Bell and Whistles just made me wish she’d sang the whole record. Loved the eighties aesthetic and vibe of Langley’s Dandelion; definitely the overall strongest set of songs of the three, but I can’t honestly say her voice is any less an acquired taste for me than Moroney’s (yes, OBVIOUSLY she’s a better singer, but I’m not sure by much).
That brings me to Honest Woman, which supersedes those three records (by some measure in at least two cases) and is easily my favorite country album of the year. I have to admit here that I have a Pearce bias; even including those first two country pop-leaning records, I don’t think she’s released anything resembling a bad album to date. Yes, albums three and four were a fairly dramatic step forward, but this one goes above and beyond even them. And I’m glad Jonathan mentioned those three nineties greats (I would add Suzy Bogguss as a fourth) because no woman in the last decade or so has made me look forward to a new album, the way those four always did, like Pearce does. “All killer, no filler”, as they say, though I have to say the old-timey, trad gem You Can Have Him is just spectacular and a sound I wish she’d lean into more (speaking of nineties women, the sharp lyrical bent on that song had me vibing Matraca Berg big time). In a just, sane world, this would be a clear AOTY contender (not holding my breath on that one).
Re:LBT. I’m not sure where they lost the plot, but they haven’t released a top-to-bottom great album since Tornado. Yes, a few good songs here and there (I admit I’m partial to the more-Fleetwood-Mac-influenced-than-usual vibes of Nightfall’s title track), but the status quo now seems to be “let’s throw any twelve to fourteen songs on an album and release it”. Also, with every passing record, I feel more and more like I’m listening to The Karen Fairchild Show. Yes, she’s a great singer, that has never been in question. But they stray and farther and farther from their unique place in the genre when every new album is even more a Fairchild solo joint than the last one. Those three Kirkpatrick-produced albums seem SO far away now….
Haven’t listened to this yet but looking forward to it. It cuts deep that she’s been exiled from radio as it could limit her ability to make studio albums moving forward.
If Carly is truly Exhibit A for vocalist limitation, then I guess I’ll take quite a bit more of her kind of limitation!
Yeah, I worry about her ability to continue to release music. She just signed with a new label (Wilson’s), but it looks as though this record didn’t chart on any of Billboard’s major albums charts (Morris’ most recent album met the same fate). But I’m with you, if her only real limitation is the vocals (and, again, they sound fine on record), I can certainly live with that.
Agree with your take on Carly Pearce. Great songwriter and POV–wouldn’t be opposed to her winning AOTY for this effort. Can’t get over, though, that she’s won FVOTY.
Her technical liabilities are especially undeniable when she collabs with people like Trisha Yearwood, Chris Stapleton, Leann Rimes, Kelly Clarkson, etc. I felt stressed watching the amount of effort she had to exert to get through the first verse of “Wrong Side of Memphis” at the ACMs a few years back, despite the range being only ~ a Maj 6th. When Trisha came in with, “I’ve had this dream from a tender age…” it was night and day. Bonkers that they’ve won ACM Top Female Vocalist the same number of times
On the topic of Lainey Wilson: while I don’t put much stock in radio play / chart performance these days, it still seems crazy that she has the same number of EOTY trophies (ACMs and CMAs combined) as she does solo #1 hits. Correct me if my math’s wrong, but I think it’s 3 for both
Yeah. Pearce’s technical limitations can be glaring, especially in a live setting (I remember when she sang I believe the Judds’ Grandpa(Tell Me Bout The Good Old Days) at an event honoring them, and it was clearly challenging for her). I will say I saw the Dolly tribute at the Opry where she sang 9 to 5 and it was one of her better live outings. But, at least on record, she’s a far sight more palatable for me than Moroney or even Langley (again, love that eighties vibe she’s been leaning into, but I’m just not a big fan of the voice).
Don’t get the fuss over the highly over-awarded Wilson. Again, fine singer and I like a few of her songs, but they (whoever constitutes “they” these days with the awards gods) went in way too hard, way too fast anointing her as The Second Coming; nothing she’s released would eclipse anything by Pearce, Ashley McBryde or the now-exiled Maren Morris on my regular listening rotation.
@Joseph what does FVOTY stand for?
I guess I have some unpopular opinions to admit now.
I’m a fan of Lainey Wilson’s. I’ve taken into account the criticisms about her music, but I still remain a pretty big fan of hers. She’s actually one of the few current mainstream country artists that I really enjoy right now and she may be my favorite among them.
As for Little Big Town, I’ve liked there last two or three albums much better than their first two or three albums. I used to think they sounded too show choir for me on record. I always liked them better live than their studio recordings. I think their harmonies didn’t translate as well on record as it did on live recordings for me for some reason. As much as I always root for Wayne Kirkpatric, I’ve liked the production on their most recent albums much more. They’ve been more interesting to me. I like their new album too.
As for Carly Pearce’s album, I think it’s very good. I do hear the vocal struggles that are mentioned here, but I don’t even know if I would really notice it if I hadn’t read complaints about it first.
Well, admittedly, I also have a little bit of a Kirkpatrick bias back from the nineties when he was recording terrific records with the great CCM (and, for about five minutes, country) singer Susan Ashton, so there’s that too.
I agree with you about Lainey Wilson, I am a fan as well and would agree that she is one of my favourites among modern country. There are songs I like more and less of course (favourite is probably WWDD, I admit).
Controversy! In the comment threads! I love it, everyone.
Since these reviews all originate on BlueSky, part of my goal / self-imposed challenge is to be relatively concise to abide by the character limits. So when it comes to Pearce, I think what’s interesting is how her POV– her refusal to stay silent about her marriage to Music Row’s own Michael Ray, some of the “exvangelical” and sex positive type lyrics that have her Rated X like some kinda gold even men turnin’ silver try to make– is much more closely aligned to that of Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini, two women who have also been shuffled off to the Island Of Misfit Toys for not toeing the line.
It’s a pretty stark comparison to the more subtly (Wilson) or overtly (Moroney, Langley) conservative “party line” perspectives and personae of the women who replaced her at the top of the pecking order. Hell, the contrast between her album’s themes and those of the drenched-in-flopsweat Lauren Alaina album makes the same point. Not for nothing that leaning into songs that are full of right-wing talking points has gotten Alaina her first radio hit in ages.
All of which is Nashville business as usual since The Chicks. It *always* goes back to The Chicks. Who Pearce has even covered… terribly.
In terms of vocal ability, Wilson’s quite obviously several leagues better than Pearce, Moroney, or Langley. I’ve liked each of her albums less than the one that preceded it, mostly because she has seriously questionable taste in influences, material, and collaborators. I respect her hustle, at least, though she’s been wildly over-rewarded by the industry relative to the quality of her work.
And I was right about Big & Rich and Morgan Wallen and Gretchen Wilson and Carrie Underwood all being *problems* right from the jump, and I’m confident that my bullshit detector is right about Moroney.
Agree that I’ve not loved a Little Big Town album since Tornado *and* that their voices are always better live than on record.
I got excited for the LBT album when I saw names like Monroe and Isbell among the collaborators. But it’s just fine. Feels like a missed opportunity.
New LBT is remarkably average. “Crickets” is the only song on the album that really gets its fingertips around the magic of older hits like “Boondocks.”
Other than the new PBT album being a little too Karen heavy and “sleepy” there’s nothing I don’t like on it.
I haven’t bought into the idea that they’ve fallen off personally as Nightfall is easily my favorite album of theirs.
I do love the Wayne K. albums though and would love to hear a new livelier direction. With a refocus on balancing the vocal duties. But not mad overall.
Carly’s album is perfection to me. I’ve seen her live quite a few times and her vocals never bothered me. I do recognize she has her limits but other than televised performances I think she does well in working within her limits. Shame her strongest work yet is going to be the worst performing.
Seeing as the project was shuffled through a label shake up and then transition I’d hope her new label home can turn things around with the next single if not album.
Like Jordan, I, too, really love ‘Nightfall’ from LBT. I even like ‘Painkiller’ despite its lopsidedness (at the very least, “Tumble & Fall” and “Live Forever”). Aside from that, count me in as someone disappointed with their work post-‘Tornado.’
I don’t dislike anything on the new album necessarily, but it is probably my least favorite of theirs yet for being so drab and dull. Doesn’t help that way too many songs drag on with no real payoff. I like “Over and Over” and think “The Door” is OK. Skip the rest.