Ashley Cooke – johnny ‘n june Written By Adam Delahoussaye
Like “sand in a suitcase,” Ashley Cooke can’t seem to shake the emotional baggage that comes as collateral in the most intense of summer flings. It’s not a side effect that often gets talked about, with the singer keen to dispel some of the propaganda around the “no strings attached” method of romance on ‘johnny ‘n june.’ It’s rare to find a balance between country music’s quick wit and the gravity of real heartbreak, a feat Cooke achieves here, with a winky-wink tagline still able to pack a punch thanks to the dressing around it, or rather lack thereof. The studio feels bare, some stray flicks of guitar strings acting as the only real companion to the singer’s clever lyrics mused through a bogged-down delivery. “Will I ever feel that again?” she wonders, poignantly recognizing that half the heartbreak is stemming from something between wasted time and wasted potential. Cooke’s left wondering if she had the makings of country music’s next power couple slip through her fingers, illustrating the lament by fully feeling it rather than playing it off for a two-step with the wrong dance partner.
7.3
The Creekers – Follow The Sound Written By Adam Delahoussaye
There’s a ghoulish tint to that first pluck on “Follow The Sound,” as we’re beckoned into holler hills somewhere deep in rural Kentucky. Once you get past the fog and the fiddle fills, The Creekers are there to greet you, crooning on what quickly turns into a siren song for moonshine bootleggers or passersby through their sparsely populated corner of the country. It’s not any real shock that The Creekers have drawn comparisons to an early rendition of The Steeldrivers, who in their day seemed to revere the most gritty and gross bluegrass groups to come out of the Appalachian mountains, and you can really hear the similarities in their newest track. Guitar strings scamper across a damp, mossy floor of a mix before those ghostly vocals croak out luring messages of temptation and something magical just beyond the morning mist. The six-piece illustrates a sort of Land of Lotus Eaters for guys in denim overalls, where the liquor is so pure and the air is so fresh that you’d be hard-pressed to remember why you had to leave once you got there. “Follow The Sound” is an excellent scene-setter of a song, pairing chilling vocals and lingering string sections to create an atmosphere as thick as the morning dew.
8.3
Telander – Lies, Pretty Lies Written By Adam Delahoussaye
Step aside, southern punk bands of a week ago, there’s a new flavor of grit and grunge in town, and he goes by Telander. Somewhere in between a frustrated Blink-182 atmosphere and a drawn-out cadence reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne sits this tatted-up, bleach-blonde punk who’s pushing the Nashville needle a little further in its edgiest direction to date. A lot of “Lies, Pretty Lies” can be boiled down to a rockstar refusing to take his medications, referring to life as “a machine,” and kicking dirt in the face of an overly complex industry of psychiatry. But his attitude is in the right place, with some guttural screams and warped guitar licks making a pretty noxious, rage-room soundtrack jam that feels like a stomp to the chest from combat boots in its most intense moments. Telander digs a little deeper in the wounds than a lot of his peers, even if he can’t quite find the root cause of the infection by just wriggling his finger. Still, the sound he’s going for is far more exploratory than what we’re used to.
7.4
Been By Now – Morgan Wallen Written By Aishwarya Rajan
If you’ve ever wondered what boredom sounds like set to music, your search ends today. Everyone loves a good tease, provided the song eventually lives up to the hype and the release date isn’t a year away. With the highly anticipated “Been By Now,” Wallen nailed the second part. The first, not so much; he usually has a nose for what deserves to be a chart-topper; this time, he sniffed out a snooze. For 3:33, listeners are confined to a flat two-note range, spoken-word anti-poetry, with production as unenthused as the story it’s telling: two people too checked out to fight for anything. The catchy pre-chorus tease may have excited most people, but rather than unfolding into a climax, those streaming never quite reach any form of satisfaction. It’s reminiscent of a merry-go-round: there are mild rises and falls, but you get off exactly where you started, unimpressed and wondering why you spent $5 and your time on the ride. Simplicity isn’t a crime, but when a song sold as a summer anthem shows up with shallow lyrics and muffled production, “bare-bones” starts looking a lot like “unfinished.” The entire track is a loop, from overly simplified lyricism to production, missing the cleverness and sincerity we’ve come to expect from him (think “Me + All Your Reasons, “865,” or “TN”). Unfortunately, “Been By Now” is the perfect example of coasting on your career with the loyalty of a fanbase to mask average production and a lack of effort.
4.8
Math of Us – Patrick Droney (ft. Kelsea Ballerini) Written By Aishwarya Rajan
One beauty of music is its ability to turn the ordinary into cinema, as though it’s a missing piece that makes a moment whole. Woven with subtle rhyming schemes, “Math of Us” by Patrick Droney is a soft ballad describing love, something abstract and unruly, through the exact and logical lens of math. The gentleness of this track lives not just in its pensive lyricism, but in the tenderness in its harmonies, where Ballerini and Droney’s upper registers meet. It’s a testament to an all-consuming love, one made more frightening by its impermanence when all you want is forever. The opening simplicity of a quick-plucked acoustic guitar and the ebb and flow of sunlit piano chords provides the space for lines like “Time is a cup of sugar borrowed, today’s a memory come tomorrow” to sit with you. In them, he captures the quiet ache of loving someone within the limits of life, knowing that somewhere down the line, time matriculates into loss. Anyone hoping to be cast away by country twang and fiddles won’t find it here. Crucially, Droney continues to display his artistry as one entrenched in the storytelling aspects dear to country music. By foregoing his typical, energizing electric guitar, listeners are presented with the unraveling of a narrative through a string ensemble that sweeps Ballerini’s soothing vocals into further sincerity before swelling into a full orchestral amalgamation of strings and percussion. If there ever were a lullaby for adults, maybe this is it.
7.6
Burn It Down (ft. Leon Bridges) – Shaboozey Written By Joel Reuben Pauley
Shaboozey’s latest, “Burn It Down,” featuring Leon Bridges, delivers slightly more than just “another bar song for you and all your friends,” as he sang on a recent single. Boozey and Bridges depict a protective kind of love, expressing a willingness to retaliate against anyone who harms their significant other. There isn’t much to criticize about the way that message is written, although it’s not always easy to make out the lyrics over the production. Shaboozey is pretty much talking through the first verse, and sounds noticeably out of breath during the stripped-back opening of the final chorus, making this one of his least stellar vocal performances to date. On the other hand, Leon has an incredible voice, but all the effects and background noise do him no justice. Vocals aside, the track itself is a refreshing departure from Shaboozey’s usual stomp-and-clap, line-dance style, and it works in its favor. The less hurried, full arrangement, paired with an awesome guitar solo at the end, sounds cooler and more unique than what listeners have come to expect from Shaboozey. Interestingly, however, for an upcoming album that literally has “Western Tales” in the title, we haven’t heard any yet.
3.7
Try Again – Charles Wesley Godwin Written By Joel Reuben Pauley
Charles Wesley Godwin has been open about the core message of his new album. After a heartbreakingly difficult season of life, Christian Name is about leaning on faith and finding redemption, which can be heard and felt strongly throughout the record. Coming in hot after a big transition out of the intro track, “Try Again,” shows a raw look into Godwin’s mind. Following trials and tragedy, he shares how he’s ready to start over “on top of the ashes,” and “let the healing in.” Much like his song “Strong,” it leaves you rooting for Godwin, as the building momentum of the band eventually turns the sound of quiet perseverance into triumph. One of the song’s greatest strengths is how effortlessly relatable it is. Without dumbing down its meaning, Godwin transforms a deeply personal experience into something that can resonate with listeners from all walks of life. Everything about the way this track sounds reinforces those themes of hope, from the chords to Godwin’s belting vocals. As the first full song in the tracklist of his new album, “Try Again” reaffirms why Charles Wesley Godwin remains one of country music’s most thoughtful and emotionally authentic songwriters.
8.5
Famous to You – Max McNown Written By Max Buondonno
The contemporary pop sounds of Max McNown certainly stand out in a genre that’s riddled with fiddles and steel guitars, yet it never seems like McNown is comfortable with playing to the typical country crowd. Instead, he takes a teenage heartthrob approach, one that feels more like One Direction and Shawn Mendes made music exclusively for Red Rocks Amphitheater. It’s in this vein that McNown continues to travel deeper into goopy love songs that, while charming and endearing, don’t come off quite as authentic as he might hope. “Famous to You,” the latest single from McNown’s forthcoming album Leave On a Light, acknowledges that life could come with fame and fortune, but the only recognition and admiration he needs is from his partner and family. Its production is very similar to other songs we’ve seen from him, and it’s written in such a way that his vocals can easily glide across the track. But there’s something inherently… “Conner4Real” about it. There’s an overall “I’m So Humble” vibe to the song, where McNown doesn’t quite brag that he’s rich and famous, but does so timidly to make him feel more down-to-earth and relatable. Pair that with his reliably cheesy choreography onstage and in nearly every TikTok posted to his account, the facade that McNown is the most humble person in town rages on and begs for your heart to melt and butterflies to flutter in your stomach. It’s not that the song needs to be good or bad for McNown; it needs to fit his singular brand. And he did it again. Consistency is too important for him and his brand, whether it blows up on country radio or not. As a result, “Famous to You” comes off as a cookie-cutter deep cut for McNown to fluff out his upcoming project. Its inability to give him something more unique or interesting to highlight, whether vocally or instrumentally, makes it forgettable once its runtime is up. It achieves the timidly humble vibes he constantly chases, but nothing more.
5.3
THE ADDICTION – Brantley Gilbert Written By Max Buondonno
You can stop “THE ADDICTION,” the opening track to Brantley Gilbert’s latest album, at the 0:53 marker and know exactly what it’s about, then promptly proceed to skip to track two. Using alcoholism and addiction as a metaphor for how much you love your woman is one of the mangled dead horses that country artists can’t stop beating. Between being his form of stress relief and morning ritual to raising kids and fixing all his problems, Gilbert bores you with tired double entendres to remind you of how in love he is. Sure, man, that’s great. But maybe do something interesting to say it? Because this song has definitely appeared before in his catalog, in some form under some different title. With the same distressed vocals he’s been bellowing his entire career and a predictable country-rock production, “THE ADDICTION” leaves you questioning where Gilbert gets his inspiration from besides all of his previous music. Whether he’s contractually obligated to release more music or if he thinks this is the first time someone’s hearing his stuff, Gilbert’s inability to add something unique or interesting to the bro-country subgenre he helped foster is stark and off-putting. It’s okay to just tour all of your old albums; there’s no need to label stale bread as freshly baked.
2.3
Her, the Kids, and Jesus – Dan + Shay Written By Noah Sneath
Dan + Shay, the Hall & Oates of country music, are a reliable duo. Even when the pair don’t deliver a catchy melody (which is rare) or the most thought-provoking lyrics (less rare), their songs can be counted on to contain flawless recording quality, lush arrangements, and something unpredictable that reminds the listener that Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney aren’t pop-country hacks. Like their music or not, they can delight the masses while also showcasing musical talent and sophistication. “Her, the Kids and Jesus” is not as musically delicious as “Marry You Again” (another single from their upcoming album, Young) but beyond its predictable verse and pre-chorus melodies is a delightfully syncopated chorus that concludes with a refrain that’s sharply delivered, now in rhythmic parallel with the instrumental elements: “Got it real good got three good reasons. Her, The Kids and Jesus.” The lyrics? Perhaps a tad pedestrian. The small choice to use rhythmic instability as a means of making an otherwise simple song sound interesting? Really nice songwriting. Call them corny, call them pop country, call them whatever you want, but don’t call them bad songwriters.
6.4
R.I.P. (SELLOUT EDIT) – Brothers Osborne Written By Noah Sneath
The alcohol on TJ Osborne’s breath is somehow smellable (surprisingly, a real word) through the speakers when “R.I.P. (SELLOUT EDIT)” plays. It’s a rabid runaway train that whizzes by in less than two minutes, frantically picking up steam as it hurdles down the tracks. The melody is forgettable, and the subject matter is familiar (Country song about a guy drinking away the memory of his failed romance? Shocker.). Still, the musical texture perfectly captures the dizzying downward spiral of a man on a mission to smother the last gasps of a relationship in a flowing cascade of beer and whiskey. The vertiginous effect of driving drums, buzzing guitars, and booming baritone voices swirling down into an alcohol-fueled abyss is captured well by this sonic pamphlet. It’s a rare musical shape. This song does not track toward the familiar three-to-four minute length with a rising and following arc. Instead, this song is like a musical blackout, rushing through drink after drink until the lights go out. Could there be an additional one minute to this song? Maybe, but we can’t remember. Unique and well constructed, this is a song that stands out nicely among the crowd of predictable country songs.
6.9
Pearl Handed Pistol – Carter Faith, Laci Kaye Booth, and Baby Nova Written By Aishwarya Rajan
It seems as though artists are falling headfirst into storytelling rooted in dusty, outlaw production and Americana folklore, think the sinister production of “Kate McCannon” by Colter Wall paired with storytelling closer to Marty Robbins’s “Big Iron.” Perhaps what’s so captivating about tracks rooted in the aesthetics of the Wild West is the perfected image of a lonesome or desolate town riddled with secrets, with instrumentals developing the same scene: whiny, layered plucks and the cavernous thumps of a drumbeat. “Pearl Handled Pistol” features three emerging artists, Carter Faith, Laci Kaye Booth, and Baby Nova, whose vocals pair so seamlessly that their harmonization above the eerie backing elevates the sound of desperado country. Faith and Booth’s candor about being underestimated for their charm and mystique is replicated by a melody that carries the same toughness: one that builds in intensity over the song’s four-minute run time. Faith’s knack for songwriting is on full display, complemented by instrumental textures that balance the metaphor she sings about: both ornate and lethal, much like the proverbial pearl-handled pistol. At times, though, that same gift tips into overly verbose description, fluff for a metaphor that already speaks for itself. The country fans of today may have just been introduced to the modern-day Trio, and perhaps these ladies should consider a project of their own.
8.3
