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Random Reflections

Reflecting on: Lindi Ortega – Cigarettes and Truckstops

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Lindi Ortega has been an artist whose style has had to grow on me. Her voice is quite different from those that I usually gravitate toward, but she has a real talent for darker songs. Readers of this site know I don’t often turn away from a dark song! Therefore, when deciding which of Lindi Ortega’s albums I wanted to reflect upon, I had only one in mind.

Release Date: 2012

Style: Alt-Country

People Who Might like This Album: Those who appreciate a good dark tale, and people who don’t mind some deviation from the usual ideas of country music.

Standout Tracks: “Day You Die,” “Murder of Crows,” “Heaven Has No Vacancy”

The songs listed above are not the only great tracks here, but since this is a ten-song album I thought I’d keep my list short. I like when Lindi does more upbeat songs, so “Day You Die” was an instant love, merely based on the guitars and tempo. Still, it’s the lyrics that really make this song stick. “You said you’d love me til the cows come home, well I’m hoping that they all go blind”. Basically, her lover says he’ll love her forever, but she fights with all her might to keep their passion alive, nonetheless. She tells him “just don’t say you’ll love me til the day you die”.

“Murder of Crows” is—you guessed it—a song about murder. It’s got more of a faster tempo though, and her voice is slightly effected. We don’t really learn why, but we know that the narrator of the song kills someone. With an opening line of “everybody knows what’s going down when a murder of crows starts hanging around”, it’s hard to not be immediately hooked.

“Heaven Has No Vacancy” is, if possible, even darker than “Murder of Crows”. The narrator is trying to get into Heaven, and she ends up sitting on the stairs of the Pearly Gates. The imagery of this song is simply stunning. Plus, the words in the beginning of the song, “for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into Hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness” sets the stage nicely. The narrator wants a place in Heaven, but Heaven has no vacancy.

Overall, this album is one I always come back to when I think of Lindi Ortega. The variety of subjects and different tempos keep things interesting. Overall, it’s probably my favorite of her albums. With Liberty coming out recently, her music has been brought more to my attention, and I’m hoping for people to check out her back catalog.

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Reviews

Album Review – Ashley McBryde – Girl Going Nowhere

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Rating: 7.5/10

Before listening to this album, the only thing I’d heard from Ashley McBryde was “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega”. I liked her voice in that song, and I found the chorus catchy. The subject of making the best of a bad day is something I think is very important. Now that I’ve listened to this album, that song is still one of my favorites, but Ashley McBryde’s music has a lot of good things going for it, aside from just that one song.

The album starts off with the title track. It’s also one of my favorites. According to the description on apple Music, the song is autobiographical. Ashley had a teacher who said she’d never get anywhere by playing music. Even when she defied said teacher’s expectations and made it, though, Ashley still had people saying that she’d crash and burn. Still, the draw of the crowd and doing what she loved kept her dreams afloat, and though it hurt when people said those things, Ashley still kept on going. After the acoustic production of this song, “Radioland” came as quite a surprise. It’s an upbeat track, with some great guitar. While I would usually not go for this kind of thing on a country album, the whole rock sound works well for Ashley’s voice, which is good as she’s got more where that came from. This particular song is all about listening to the radio as she grew up, and the memories she had. I liked the flow of the song, and it made for a nice, somewhat lighter moment.

“American Scandal” is one of my least favorite songs on the album. It’s pleasant to listen to, but it just doesn’t stick out. It’s a relationship song. She wants the passion of scandals past. I guess things are just too vague for me to really relate to the characters in this one. “Southern Babylon” is an interesting song. It’s all about her going to Hell, where she had to play guitar in flames. While discussing this song with Megan, she said it was awesome for someone to put a song about going to Hell on their debut album. She also wished that the production had been different, and when she said that, I realized my problem with this song. I wish it had been rougher, maybe more upbeat, something instrumentally to indicate the theme of the song. Overall, I think this track was an awesome idea, I just wish it had been executed differently.

We go from Hell to memories. “The Jacket” is the next track, and it’s all about her father’s old jean jacket. It had seen many of his memories, and he ultimately gives it to her so that she could feel like he was with her. I do love this song. It takes being materialistic and turns it around. The object actually has a meaning. “Living Next to Leroy” is a fun and upbeat song, despite the lyrics revolving around getting high. It’s another nostalgia-laced song, wherein she talks about her neighbor who was big into drugs. In the end of the song, she gets her diploma, and Leroy isn’t there to be proud of her.

“Andy (I Can’t Live Without You)” is a softer song. The instrumentation is mostly made up of guitar, and her tone is softer. It’s all about a relationship wherein her boyfriend drives her crazy, but she can’t seem to live without him. I loved how this song portrayed how relationships are never perfect, and even that man who drives you crazy could still be the one for you. “El Dorado” is yet another faster song, all about driving to the next show, and trying to find the town it’s in. SHe’s tired, they’re running out of gas, and yet she keeps going. I take this as sort of a sequel to “Girl Goin’ Nowhere”, since she’s headed toward her dreams. I like the instrumentation of the song, but the repeated line of “can’t stop now” does quickly get old. Still, it’s not an awful song, and it makes for good listening.

Finally, we come to the last two songs. “Tired of Being Happy” is a slower, more blues-infused track. The woman in the song is telling her ex that if he gets tired of being happy and in love, he could give her a call. She doesn’t want to ruin what he has, but she’s there, just in case he ever wants to take her up on the offer. “Home Sweet Highway” is another road song, all about how the highway is her home. This song doesn’t stick out much for me either, maybe because it’s slower. Still, I like how she keeps bringing things back to the road.

Overall, I think this is a well-done album. It’s one of the best mainstream country albums I’ve heard in a while, probably since Maddie and Tae’s album. Ashley’s voice is versatile, going from vulnerable in songs like “Andy”, to more confident in “Radioland”, and “El Dorado”. I think if you want to find a new artist who’s in the mainstream scene, you should definitely check out this album.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s830jmiqnw

Reviews

Album Review: Caleb Caudle – Crushed Coins

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Rating: 7/10

The two most important things in life are loss and love. This album has songs that are about both of those things, and from what I can conclude from listening to the lyrics, those are the two themes here; loss, and love. What better way to make a record about life?
“Lost Without You” gets right into the loss part. He’s missing someone, and he says, “until it’s over, I’m lost without you”, so perhaps that means he has no way of getting someone back. Perhaps they’re dead, or with someone else. The vagueness of these lyrics makes it hard to understand. I do like the instrumentation of this song, though. The guitars and overall sound are nice. “N.Y.C. in the Rain” also has lyrics I cannot seem to puzzle out. It seems to be a song about loneliness, how everyone is on their own course. People leave each other behind, or treat them badly, which causes them to feel like outsiders. While that’s a very sad theme, I can’t quite connect to this song emotionally. There is some very nice piano, though, and I definitely like the song instrumentally.
Everything changes for me lyrically with the third song, “Headlights”. It’s a song about dreams and how they never turn out quite like you would expect. I like how the lyrics address the fact that dreams look better until you start putting real effort into them. He’d rather dream something crazy than to see his dream is dead. “Empty Arms” is a song I really enjoy. To me, it’s about a long-distance relationship. He buys postcards, sends them with words she already knows, that they’re going to stay together, despite the brutality of the world. It’s a nice moment of lightness after the three heavier songs. I also like the more rock-sounding guitars on the song. It’s one of my favorites off of the album, I think.
“Love That’s Wild” has an interesting beginning, where I thought the sound would be completely different. After a few seconds of effects, steel guitar hits your ears, and makes this one of the most country offerings from this album. This is yet another love song. It talks about a couple who are deeply attached to one another. She made him better after he was broken, and now she’s his queen. I can’t help liking this song for its simplicity. The title track is a more acoustic offering, with only guitar and a couple other instruments backing up Caleb’s vocals. The line that really gets me is “there’s no laughter in this house”. I wish he wouldn’t repeat it, but he really paints the picture of a broken home very well. Once again, I’m wishing we had more specific details so that I could connect emotionally with this song, but it’s not a bad track by any means.
“Way You Oughta Be Seen” describes someone whom he’s seen through many different phases in their lives. He’s seen the highs, the lows, and the way they ought to be seen. He wishes everyone could see her the way she should be seen. “Stack of Tomorrows” once again has that more upbeat tempo that I really like on this album. It seems to be a song about time. He wants to do as much as he can before his time is up, so he’s stacking up tomorrows with his partner. He spends the last of the song repeating the same line about three or four times in a row, and it gets a bit tedious.
One of my other favorites off of the album is “Madelyn”. It has some really well-done fiddle. It’s the first song I listened to off of this album, and it made me interested to try the rest. In the song, he’s talking to Madelyn about their lives together. He talks about some of the painful things in their past, and then says he knows they’ll make it. He’ll help her when she needs it. Again, I really like these earnest love songs. “Six Feet From the Flowers” is one of the saddest songs I have heard all year. It’s all about a man who has lost his wife. He talks about how he has her pictures and trinkets. He has his workbench, but he hasn’t used it to build anything because he has nobody to build for. These are the kinds of details that really connected me to this song. The backing vocal of a sort of choir, and the organ in the background really give this song a somber feeling. In the end, years have passed, and the man dies, going home to see his wife. This has to be the highlight of the album. There is just too much feeling and thought poured into this track. If you listen to anything off of this record, make it this song. It’s unbearably sad, but it makes up for all of the other songs I failed to connect with.
“Until It’s Over” is the final track on the album. It’s a love song, where he talks about a woman who keeps him on track. The thing about this song is he keeps repeating the word “anymore”. It quickly got old, but I did like the idea of the song, as well as the acoustic instrumentation. It harkens back to the first song, because he says “until it’s over, I’m lost without you”. I’m not a fan of the instrumental that ends the song, but as everyone reading my posts knows, that’s just my personal taste.
In the end, I thought this was a solid album. The instrumentation was always very well-done, and the musical styles varied enough that I never got bored. There are some really good songs on here. Still, the thing that really brings this album down for me is the vagueness in a lot of the lyrics, and the fact that I can’t quite connect to the majority of the songs. If they had all been more specific in the pictures and characters Caleb Caudle painted with his words, this could easily have been a great album. Still, this has definitely made me interested to try out some of his other albums, and he is now an artist I’m intrigued to watch.

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Random Reflections, Reviews

My Country Exclusive Anniversary

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Time flies. That was my first thought when Megan told me I have been writing for Country Exclusive for nearly a year. It certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve been part of the site for that long. When I first joined, I had only written one album review. Writing about music was something I had thought about doing, but never to any serious degree. However, when Megan and I started talking about music, it led to her asking me to be part of Country Exclusive, and here I am.
In writing for Country Exclusive, I’ve definitely learned a lot. I have been on blogs where I’ve talked about and reviewed books, but writing about music is different. It causes you to have to think deeply about the possible meaning of song lyrics, and the reasons why a song’s instrumentation is the way it is. Writing about music can be a challenge, because it’s a very personal thing. A song could mean something to you, and a completely different thing to someone else. That’s the beauty of music, and the challenge for me, as a reviewer.
All of this is to say, being a writer for Country Exclusive has been very rewarding. It has caused me to think about music critically, as opposed to simply saying “I don’t like this”. It also gives me an outlet to discuss my favorite bands and albums, which I’ve never had before. Therefore, on my one-year anniversary as a reviewer for Country Exclusive, I’d like to thank Megan for taking a chance on my writing, and to the readers for following the site. I hope everyone continues to like what I write here, and I can’t wait to find my next favorite album or artist with you all.

Reviews

Album Review – Laura Benitez and the Heartache – With All its Thorns

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Rating: 8/10

It’s no surprise to anyone who reads my reviews on Country Exclusive that I love traditional country music. If an artist currently makes authentic country with lots of steel—and said artist has a voice I appreciate—I’m a pretty easy sell. If you feel the same way as I do about music that fits these requirements, you need to check out Laura Benitez and the Heartache.

When you press play on the first song on this album, you know what you’re in for right away. There’s well-done instrumentation with lots of steel guitar, some nice and mostly upbeat rhythms, and even the occasional accordion. I was immediately interested in what kind of work Laura Benitez would create.

If the instrumentation is what caught my interest first, it was the lyrics that made me stay. The thing about this album is, there are a few songs where one line tells the whole story. “Ghost Ship” uses the line “I don’t know where you are” to help tell the tale of someone who has lost a loved one in a fire, and cannot locate that person afterword. “In Red” uses the lyrics “I should have married you in red” to act as a well-done omen. Upon a couple’s marriage, the new bride spills wine on her dress and jokingly says “I should have married you in red”. By the end of the song, the marriage isn’t going well at all, and she kills her husband. Then, there are songs that take words and twist them around. “The Fool I Am Right Now” is a honky tonk song about a woman who has been the fool who has maxed out her credit cards. She’s been the fool who didn’t take care of her car. However, she’d rather be the fool she is right now, which is a fool in love. “Why Does it Matter” details a woman saying it doesn’t matter if her man doesn’t love her, she’ll still do the same things she always does. It doesn’t matter to her if he has any feelings for her anymore. “But if it doesn’t matter,” she sings, “why does it matter so much?”

The rest of the songs are just as good. The first song, “Something Better Than a Broken Heart” revolves around a woman who thought she’d get something better than a broken heart. Her dreams of a home and love were all proven wrong when her partner left her. One of my favorites is the next track, “Easier Things to Do”. She sings about how it would be easier to not play music and to not love the man she loves, but she still does. “Our Remember Whens” is an awesome honky tonk song about a woman who’s just met someone. She’s excited for them to get to all of their memories. She looks forward to looking back into the past with her partner, sharing jokes and good times together.

“Whiskey Makes Me Love You” is an upbeat song, but it essentially says that alcohol makes her love the person she’s with, even though she already loves them a lot. “Almost The Right One(Casi Mi Cielo” is a sad song about a woman who thought she found the perfect man for her, the one she’d be with forever. As it turned out, he was almost the right one, painfully ending things when it could easily have turned into forever. “Secrets” details a couple where both the man and woman are cheating on their spouse. They justify it with “secrets are better than lies”. “Nora Went Down the Mountain” details the story of a woman who had been happily married, until one day when she just left home with no warning. This song is probably the most forgettable on the whole album, in my opinion. That’s saying a lot, though, since I like it well enough.

In case you couldn’t tell, I really liked this album. Laura Benitez brings a nice flair to this music with her voice, and the fact that she’s a Spanish speaker. I love the inclusion of the accordion, all of the steel guitar, and the cleverness of the lyrics. All in all, this is one of my new favorite discoveries of 2018 so far!

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