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Album Review: Bri Bagwell–In my Defense

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Rating: 7/10

In a just world, Bri Bagwell would be a mainstream country star, and this album would be certified gold. It probably could have done that in 2004. It’s firmly country, but laced with elements of pop and rock so that it would fit well on mainstream radio. It’s hook-driven and catchy, yet it doesn’t insult the intelligence of the listener. It’s at once thoughtful and accessible, personal and universal, authentically country but still commercial enough to appeal to a wider audience. And yet, Bri Bagwell remains fiercely independent and unfairly obscure, fighting to be heard in a Texas scene where success for women is arguably harder to come by than in Nashville.

This album is a great case for the value of pop country, for the fact that commercial appeal doesn’t necessarily mean a drop in quality, and perhaps most of all for the care for song craft in Texas music. Now, there’s some truly awful music coming out of Texas and Oklahoma; don’t be one of those people who just thinks music sounds better when it’s not made in Nashville and is no longer a discriminating listener. But generally, much of the more commercial side of Texas country does tend to be more substantive than mainstream Nashville, and this record is a great example of that. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, and you won’t get something groundbreaking lyrically, but the hooks are strong and clever, and this is exactly what you want from an artist like Bri Bagwell.

As mentioned, the hooks are the strongest asset of the record, and none is more interesting than in “Cheat on Me,” where Bagwell opens the song with the immediately intriguing line, “I wish you would cheat on me.” She goes on to reveal that basically, she knows she doesn’t love this man, but he hasn’t done her wrong, so she feels bad hurting him. If he would just cheat on her or lie to her, she could leave without breaking his heart or feeling guilty. It’s a really blunt way of putting things, but if we’re honest, I think many of us have probably felt similarly at one point, dreading having to hurt someone for whom we care deeply, or wishing we loved someone back but knowing it will never happen.

“As Soon as You” is also really well-written, with lines like “as soon as you try to fence me in, I’m breaking loose” and “as soon as you bring up a ring, I’m nowhere to be found” explaining that she’s just not ready to settle down. Then we get the chorus, where she admits that “if you wait patiently, eventually I’ll wanna say I do, I just won’t get there as soon as you.” In a complete antithesis of this song, we have “Feel Like Home,” in which she’s the one trying to convince the man to settle down, saying, “if you don’t slow down you’ll never know if a house could ever feel like home.” I enjoy both of these songs, but they are a bit troubling in light of each other; the former feels more personal to Bri, and she has said the whole album is quite personal to her, so it makes the latter song feel slightly out of place. Individually, however, they hold up as two of the strongest tracks on the record.

Most of these songs are upbeat, but it’s nice to see a softer, more tender side to Bagwell toward the end of the album. In “Ring a Bell,” she’s singing from the perspective of the other woman, lamenting their choices to commit adultery and ruin three lives. There’s a really cool little nugget of songwriting here in the line, “you took the ring off your hand, put it in the one nightstand, next to the King James.” The album closer, “Empty Chairs,” finds Bri at her most vulnerable, as she sings of the ups and downs of being in the spotlight and asks God to be there with her even on the nights when she sees empty chairs from the stage. This is her pouring out her soul, even going so far as to admit to finding her worth in the number of tickets she’s sold. It’s just a deeply personal confession, and it’s a privilege to the listener to be let into her delicate head space here.

Bri Bagwell’s vocals are definitely a strength here. She displays a pretty extensive range and shows both technical skill and the ability to interpret a lyric. Here’s one more artist in the independent scene proving vocal ability still matters as much as a good piece of songwriting. That said, she lacks something distinctive about her voice to really make her stand out. It comes out in flashes, like in the slight rasp in “If You were a cowboy” and “Cheat on Me,” but I’d like to see her develop it more. That quality in her voice is really unique and would serve her well if she used it to her full advantage.

There isn’t a bad moment on the album, and nothing feels like filler, but the weakest point does come in the heart of the album, with “I Can’t be Lonely” and “Graffiti.” These are both breakup songs, and both are fine, but neither really has a strong hook like the rest of the tracks. Bri Bagwell’s vocals make these songs better, but neither of them are very memorable. You won’t skip them, but they won’t be the ones you keep getting stuck in your head either.

This is just a really solid, well-written, wonderfully sung album. The hooks are smart, the melodies are memorable and engaging, and Bri Bagwell is a strong vocalist with range and power. This is exactly the kind of record I would love to see in the mainstream in 2018. A nice slice of modern country for those who appreciate a good lyric but still like a more contemporary sound. Go check this album out, and get to know Bri Bagwell.

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Song Reviews: The Three New Pistol Annies Tracks

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I think I speak for all Pistol Annies fans out there when I say that new music from them has been long overdue. We’ve been waiting anxiously while the group hinted for months about a new album. Finally, they’ve given us three new songs at once, and their third album, Interstate Gospel, will grace our presence on November 2nd. I will say that while country radio is inevitably going to ignore whichever song they ultimately choose as a single–because let’s face it, it’s three women singing country which doesn’t belong anywhere near mainstream country radio–it would be nice if the label actually did choose a dedicated single and at least give it a shot and adequate promotion. But let’s get to the music.

All three tracks were written by Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley.

“Got My Name Changed Back”

This is just great, a fun, catchy song about freedom after getting divorced. It’s refreshing to hear a song like this where the result of the divorce is happiness, as opposed to loneliness and regret. There’s a stigma surrounding failed marriages, and it’s nice to hear Miranda Lambert singing about it positively. She leads this track, with some backing “yeah yeahs” by her fellow Annies. That part can be a bit overdone, but equally, it will add to this live, and it makes this one probably the most likely to have any semblance of a shot at radio.

The best thing about this one is the sound. The annies simultaneously display more of a rock edge and more twang than on their previous efforts. We have solos for the dobro and the electric guitar, showcasing more of a rootsy sound while also embracing a rougher quality. Their sound, on this one as well as the others, appears more defined and unique. It seems to take away a little of the underlying polish from their last two records, leaving the instrumentation more uninhibited.

Probably my favorite of the three, but maybe not the best one to make new Annies fans, as it’s thematically much like a Miranda solo song and features her primarily vocally.

Rating: 8/10

“Interstate Gospel”

The title track primarily features Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley. This provides a nice contrast to the Miranda Lambert led “Name Changed Back,” and it was a smart decision to release both of them, giving listeners a taste of all three singers’ voices. This one again showcases that raw, rootsy sound, with prominent acoustic guitar and twangy piano. It’s also excellent to hear Ashley Monroe not sounding so polished and proper after her last solo album; this is the sound that suits her voice, and it further proves the point that most of Sparrow wasn’t flattering to her traditional country voice.

Lyrically, this is the most lightweight of the three; most of the story here is in the instrumentation and mood. It’s just a rambling song infused with the spirit of the highway, and it will probably be better judged in the context of the album. Personally, I would not choose it as a lead single because there’s not really a strong hook. It’s fun and catchy like “Name Changed Back,” but it will shine better in album context than it does on its own.

Solid track, but the least impressive of the three.

Rating: hesitant 7/10

“Best Years of my Life”

Here, we have a lovely ballad, a good contrast thematically and lyrically to the attitude in the first two songs. This one features all three Annies prominently, and for me, this is when the group is at their best vocally, something independent from any of their solo work and special for its own reasons. The narrator here is a bored housewife, typical of many Pistol Annies songs; this woman is taking pills and getting high to pass the time, staying married to a man whom she says “don’t love me, but he ain’t gone yet.” she calls her mom to say she’s all right, and ironically says, “these are the best years of my life.” The subtlety in that irony is unique to country music and a great example of clever songwriting.

Speaking of songwriting, there’s a weird line at the beginning of this song where basically, Ashley Monroe tries to squeeze in as many syllables as possible with: “I picked a good day for a recreational Percocet.” When I first heard it, I was a bit annoyed and thrown off by the rhythm and pentameter, and then the weird lines continued in Presley’s and Lambert’s verses, and by the time I’d heard it three times, I got used to it, and it became part of the song’s charm. but I’ve noticed that people either tend to love or hate this little quirk, as it can be quite distracting.

Well-written, sentimental track, and the best display of all three singers’ voices and harmonies.

Rating: 8/10

In short, all these tracks hold promise for the upcoming album. Now can November 2nd please get here so we can hear the rest?

Reviews

Album Review: Carrie Underwood–Cry Pretty

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Rating: 4/10

Carrie Underwood’s sixth album could have been her best one so far. It certainly had possibility. It marked the transition from Sony to UMG, her first label change since she won American Idol all those years ago. There were hints of this album being particularly personal to her, and the first single, the title track from the album, certainly seemed to be. It was strong, explaining that no matter how hard you try to keep your emotions in check for the public, sometimes everything comes pouring out. I commented in my review of the single how different it was from almost everything on country radio at the moment, being written solely by women, containing actual country instrumentation and being able to be correctly labeled pop country, and most importantly, just being substantive. “Love Wins,” though not quite the stirring anthem of unity it thinks it is, still showed promise for the album. I’ve been intrigued by this record both as a reviewer and as a fan. This was Carrie Underwood’s opportunity to show leadership in the country genre, and she seemed to be doing that pretty well ahead of the release.

As for the album? If I could sum it up in one word, it would be disappointing. It just destroys all your hopes and dreams and expectations and leaves you thoroughly dismayed that Carrie Underwood has squandered another chance to live up to her incredible potential.

This disappointment is amplified even more by the impressive strength of the opening three tracks. First, we have the single and title track, followed by “Ghosts on the Stereo” and “Low,” two songs about getting over a relationship. Aside from both displaying country themes, there’s some country flavor to each of them as well, and though both are primarily pop with country hints sonically, they fit Carrie Underwood well. The lyrics are strong, and Underwood’s vocals on “Low” are just astonishing. This song does a great job building throughout, making the most of her raw vocal talent. Three songs into this album, I was starting to think this might end up being one of Carrie’s best. Mainstream records tend to get better as they go along as well, so this made Cry Pretty even more promising.

Then we get to “Backsliding,” and everything just starts to fall apart. Look, I get that Carrie Underwood is just as much, if not more so, a pop artist than a country one, but she’s always blended the two genres fairly well. These songs are increasingly cluttered by overproduction; instead of blending country and pop naturally, many of these songs feel like they’ve been forced into pop crossover status. If “Southbound,” your standard mainstream party anthem, disposable and lacking any real substance, were the worst thing here, we could excuse it as a misstep, an ill-advised attempt at radio relevancy. As it is, it’s comparatively harmless when the sixth track, “That song That We Used to Make Love To,” comes on, with its weird, unnecessary electronic sounds and generic R&B production. There are some especially distracting sounds at the beginning of this song that make me seriously question these producer’s ear for music–how does it enhance a song to add random squawking sounds in the mix? Who thought this made the track better? Similar to Keith Urban’s latest album, there are places here where it just feels like they went into the studio, pressed a bunch of random buttons, and sent it out. Someone needs to tell these people that more doesn’t always mean better because subtlety and nuance have clearly become lost concepts on Music Row. In Carrie Underwood’s case, I can’t even say her songs were screwed up by ambitious producers, for she herself did much of the producing on this record. This was something that initially excited me, especially given the lack of female producers in country and music in general, but this was clearly not a great production decision.

We do get one more outstanding cut on the latter half of the album with the piano ballad “Spinning Bottles.” This song looks at drinking and addiction and how it affects two people in a relationship. Carrie’s vocal performance is excellent, the piano is beautiful, and the production doesn’t get in the way of everything. this is one place where they managed to hold back, and it really paid off.

This song is flanked by “The Bullet” and “Love Wins,” this record’s attempt to get political, or more accurately, to promote unity despite this contentious political climate. “The Bullet” is a look at the lives of a victim’s family after he was shot, stating that the effects last far beyond the funeral. It’s careful not to take a side, with the line “you can blame it on hate, or blame it on guns” sticking out to let the song speak to all sides. “Love wins” is more generic, just your typical song about coming together and loving one another. Both songs are strong in light of the rest of the album, but equally, both are just a bit too sappy and obvious. On a stronger project, I don’t really mind these two songs, but they don’t add anything; here, they’re better than some of the rest but ultimately still feel a bit underwhelming. “The Bullet” is the better of the two since it has a bit more to say and more specific details.

The rest of the latter half is just unremarkable. Both “Drinking Alone” and “Kingdom” are fine lyrically, but again, the production is just messy. “Kingdom” actually starts out understated, but by the second verse, this simple ode to her family and home life gets drowned out by the arrangement. this song would have worked if they’d been able to resist turning it into a power ballad. WE get that Carrie Underwood can belt, but being able to pull out the simplicity and emotion of a song is just as important as sustaining all these high notes. “Drinking Alone” is one of those times where Carrie’s pop side would have come out naturally and made the song great, but instead of a good pop song, it’s infused with that same production style that hinders some of the other tracks, an almost R&B flavor. Underwood’s vocals are strong here, though, making this one mediocre rather than terrible. “End up with You” is just awful, annoying and overproduced as much as “That Song That We Used to Make Love To” on the front of the album. And of course we have “The Champion” as a bonus track, which serves its purpose well enough as a Super bowl hype song, but it’s just so unflattering to the vocal range and talents of Carrie Underwood. On an already disappointing, subpar effort, this track just seems like a fittingly bad closer.

I really wish I enjoyed this album more. Aside from “Spinning Bottles,” I remain distinctly underwhelmed from the fourth track onward. It’s not that there’s more pop material on this project either, it’s that everything is so forced and over the top. The production through so much of this is just a cacophonous mess. It only adds insult to injury that the first three songs and “Spinning Bottles” are so strong because these are some of the best of Carrie Underwood’s career. But this is easily her least consistent, least country, most disappointing, and ultimately worst album she has released to date. It had so much potential, and that potential comes out in several places on this record. Don’t overlook those places. It’s just such a shame, though, that this album so spectacularly fails to live up to expectations or to the talent and ability of Carrie Underwood.

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Review: Runaway June’s Self-Titled EP

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Rating: 7/10

It seems like forever since Runaway June burst onto the scene in 2016 with “Lipstick,” bringing excellent harmonies and a decidedly pop country blend to a mainstream that was most definitely pop. Certainly most male and/or less country-minded artists would have an album out by now and might even be working on a second. Runaway June, a group of three women who have the audacity to include actual country instrumentation like fiddle, steel, and twangy piano in their music, not to mention actual intelligent songwriting, have of course had to wait two years after their first single to release a project; and even now, we’ve only been granted an EP, a format that’s systematically ignored and undermined by the whole industry. It’s as if Music Row has collectively decided that projects containing any roots or substance must be limited to a certain number of songs so that the casual listener thinks this invasion of quality must be a fluke and continues to buy the endless amounts of uninteresting, recycled bullshit these labels mercilessly churn out, and God forbid this quality music come from women, that’s only another strike against it.

So a five-song EP is all we’ve been allowed from Runaway June even after this long wait, but it’s still new music from a promising trio in the mainstream and should not be overlooked. This is firmly in the pop country realm, so the stricter traditionalists probably won’t have much to enjoy here. But this is pop country, not straight pop, and this is for the mainstream listener who is tired of the lack of substance on radio and streaming playlists, the modern country fan who is still disenchanted with just how far the genre has slipped in recent years.

Opening this EP we have the fun, instantly re-playable “Buy my Own Drinks,” an anthem of singleness announcing that this narrator can move on by herself after her breakup. She doesn’t need the guy in the bar to buy her a round. She can pay her own tab and have a good time by herself. It’s a great message to women that we don’t need men to define us, but that’s an undertone–the song itself is lighthearted and delivered in a fun way, just saying that she can get over him and be fine on her own. “I Am Too” is sort of this song’s antithesis, as once again, our heroine is in a bar getting over an ex, but this time, she’s vulnerable, blaming herself for the things that went wrong in the relationship and admitting her mistakes, wondering if he’s somewhere drinking and thinking about her. It’s a bit hard to make an overarching statement on a short little EP, but these two songs together really do a good job of showcasing two equally valid reactions in the aftermath of a relationship.

Another angle of complicated relationships comes out in “Got Me Where I Want You,” as the narrator sings of wanting a man that she knows she shouldn’t. It’s not really clear why she shouldn’t, and this song could have done a little better at painting this picture, but it’s written well, framed around the hook, “you only want me when you got me where you want me, and you got me where I want you tonight.” This track is accentuated by some lovely piano and enhanced by the harmonies of Naomi Cooke, Hannah Mulholland, and Jennifer Wayne. Their harmonies also serve to make the next song, a cover of Dwight Yoakam’s “Fast as You,” work; It’s risky and arguably inadvisable to make one song a cover on such a short project, and I had my doubts about this, but it’s the strongest selection here. They manage to find that perfect balance between staying true to the original while making this song their own, and also, to the ones that came to country from the bros and Sam Hunt, this introduces an actual country artist, and with a song that’s fun and catchy and makes “true” country seem, for lack of a better word, cool.

The EP closes with “Wild West,” a version of which I reviewed when it first came out in 2017, and although this version is more contemporary, and I prefer the other, this is still the best original track here. Steel guitar can still be heard in this version, even if it is buried deeper in the mix, and that fiddle solo is defiant and prominent. After all the relationship troubles, this song manages to give the EP a final thought, a happy ending where so many sad ones had preceded it. Again, it’s hard to make a cohesive statement in five songs and sixteen minutes, but having “Wild west” as the closer helps to do so and makes the EP a little more complete.

This is a solid debut from a promising group. Not for the traditionalists, but a good blend of country and pop for the more pragmatic, contemporary listeners. There’s substance in the songwriting, and the harmonies are strong and well-defined. These harmonies add a uniqueness to Runaway June’s sound as well. I only wish we had more music to listen to from these ladies, but this is certainly a fine start.

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Album Review: Lucero–Among The Ghosts

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Rating: 8/10

From the opening guitar riff of the title track, quiet at first and ever building into this album’s first song, I was drawn in by Lucero’s latest record. It’s been a hard album for which to find the words, and yet it’s not been an album that had to grow on me in any sense. Rather, it’s just a record where I’ve listened so many times and found myself taken out of a place of critical comment, or really comment altogether, and just into a place of reflection.

It’s difficult to put into words because this album’s greatest strength is in the music, the chemistry of Lucero as a band after twenty years together, and the darkness that permeates this whole record as its title would suggest. Most of these songs are delivered in minor keys, befitting the somber nature of a good majority of this record. Instrumentally, it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard all year, bringing engaging melodies and certainly incredible musical arrangements. At this stage of their career, Lucero could be complacent, or they could have exhausted their creative abilities and resorted to releasing stale, lifeless music. But just like Old Crow Medicine Show earlier this year, this band delivers an album that still sounds fresh, drawing on that chemistry forged from years together for one of this album’s greatest assets. It’s the killer guitar chords in “Everything Has Changed” and “Long Way Back Home” and the beautiful piano in “Always Been You” that make these songs come alive. It’s the surprise of that saxophone coming out in the closer, “For the Lonely Ones,” which makes that song go from average to instantly one of the standouts of the whole album. And Ben Nichols’ delivery, always rough and raw and gritty, adds something intangible to the mood of this album that just naturally makes it all work better. It’s hard to put something like this on paper, for the joy of the experience comes in listening and capturing the album’s mood.

That’s not to say that the lyrics here aren’t memorable; you just don’t keep replaying the album for its lyrics. Still, there are moments like the introspective “Bottom of the Sea” and the quietly sincere “Loving” where the writing really shines. Themes of love and family, particularly the tension between staying at home with family and being on the road, echo throughout. This is first introduced in the opener and title track, the most personal song here for Nichols, as he sings about leaving his wife and daughter and says that his daughter’s first word was “goodbye.” “To My Dearest Wife” feels much the same, only less autobiographical, as it’s framed from the point of view of a soldier missing his loved ones while on the front lines. “Long Way Back Home” sees two brothers doing all they can to survive, even if it means breaking the law. “Always been You” and “Loving” carry the themes of love and reconciliation, bringing hope to this mostly sobering affair. For all the hope in the lyrics, though, there’s that haunting sense of fear which runs heavily through this; perhaps it’s a fear of losing the people and things that are important, the ones that really matter most in this life. Ben Nichols has spoken of this, of a shift in his perspective since having a daughter, and it’s certainly reflected in the writing here.

But as I say, words can’t really do justice to this particular album, and although it deserved words, the real beauty comes from hearing it. It’s great to see Lucero return to more of the harder rock style that made them popular in the early days of their career, a sound from which they’d departed some on their last several records. If you’ve been missing that style from this band, Among the Ghosts is certainly a welcome return to form. It’s a record which is instantly replayable, especially if you like darker material. It encapsulates what people love about Lucero in the first place, and why they’re still going strong after twenty years. Maybe not the album for everyone here because this leans heavily toward the rock end of the spectrum and because of the darker feel, but for the right audience, Among the Ghosts is a great listen.

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