Taylor Swift – Folklore

For some reason, the other albums I reviewed this week were pretty easy to write about, despite being admittedly cold takes, though this one feels a little harder to know what to say about. Which is a bit odd considering it happens to be the newest album I’ve reviewed this week. However, a new Taylor Swift album doesn’t play by the same rules as other album releases, especially one that was as complete a surprise (in more ways than one) as Folklore was. So, there have inevitably been all kinds of takes since this album came out three weeks ago — from discussions about Taylor’s indie cred to questionable theories of certain songs’ queer-baiting — but I think the most important one is that this is almost certainly the best example yet of Swift’s talents as a songwriter. Continue reading →

The Chicks – Gaslighter

Perhaps the most pleasant discovery of doing The People’s Albums — a series I hope to continue sometime soon — was finding that The Dixie Chicks are actually kinda great. They’re not a group that often gets recognized as such, possibly because there still isn’t anything all that cool about the late ’90s explosion of country music into the mainstream. But what set The Dixie Chicks apart is that they remained uniquely true to their bluegrass roots when a lot of their contemporaries were basically making pop-rock with a little bit of twang thrown in. Of course, they were ostracized completely from the country music establishment after their comments about George W. Bush in relation to the Iraq War (back when celebrities could get canceled for not loving the President), so they unsurprisingly embraced pop a little more after this media whirlwind. Now renamed The Chicks, they’ve done a little bit of both — getting a bit away from country music while also retaining the musical touches that have always been at the heart of their sound. Continue reading →

Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started

Margo Price’s 2017 album, All American Made, was an album I liked quite a bit when it came out, but I never got around to writing about it. This might have just been part of an aversion to writing about genres I’m not as much of an expert on coupled with the fact that Price’s traditionally solid singer-songwriter style isn’t exactly the juiciest style of music to write about. Which, of course, isn’t fair. So before I let another very good Margo Price LP pass us by, let’s take a look at yet another album whose release was affected by the coronavirus. Continue reading →

Haim – Women In Music Pt. III

When I mentioned yearning for a more subdued, but nonetheless summer-y album in my Phoebe Bridgers review, this is about what I had in mind. While Haim created one of the best summer albums in recent memory with their 2013 debut and a solidly upbeat (if a little overcooked) follow-up, Women In Music Pt. III sees them slowing down and sounding even more comfortable in their own skin. Still, this is the same Haim you’d expect to stuff their songs full of retro-inspired hooks, and there are more than a few songs here that have been dependable earworms ever since the album was released about a month and a half ago. Continue reading →