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Things are heating up folks. After April provided at least five potential Album of The Year contenders to ease us into Spring, May's not going to be shown up, kicking off with a few belters released today (3 May).
Adeem The Artist's back with their wonderful new album Anniversary. Adeem has always had this canny ability to mash up a distinct cocktail of sounds and channel them into deeply personal and relatable narratives, and that's only refined further on this artistic highlight. As Soda Canter explains, if you don't shed a tear through 'Wounded Astronaut', you're dead inside.
Emily Nenni is back in Music City and boy has she made a record to encompass it. Drive & Cry is both a rollicking good time and a weeping slow dance around the dance hall, the sort you'd punch into the jukebox and both Twist the night away or bawl along to after a few too many tequila slammers. If you don't end up scrawled over the bar at your local honky tonk after a few spins of this, you should really question how you are spending your Friday nights. Holly Smith details just why you need this record on repeat.
BOWEN*YOUNG, the duo consisting of Nashville star Clare Bowen and her husband Brandon Young, have released their debut album through Snakefarm Records here in the UK. As Grace Derbyshire finds, it's a real mature and explorative debut album, the pair refining what they call 'cinematic americana' into a pleasing first release.
Finally, Tenille Arts has released her first record since joining Dreamcatcher Artists. Entitled to be honest, it's a trail through the most intimate and personal of moments in someones life shared through glossy, synth-imbued country-pop. Does it cut the mustard? Alli Patton decides.
As always, plenty to delve into here folks. Let's dive in. Here's Holler's New Country Album Releases This Week Round-Up:
Adeem The Artist - Anniversary
"Anniversary cements Adeem The Artist as one of America’s most precious artists"
With Anniversary, Adeem the Artist wholeheartedly gives themselves to us in the hopes of inspiring understanding and change.
The album is a stirring collection of intricately woven musings on important moments along their own journey. Recorded over a mere five days, they successfully capture the essence of each song’s moment in time by committing to a wide range of genre styles, adding colorful depths to the stories being shared.
No matter the topic covered, Adeem The Artist remains utterly relatable in their storytelling. They choose to invite, instead of exclude.
Read Soda Canter's full review of Adeem The Artist's Anniversary.
Emily Nenni - Drive & Cry
"A succession of smart, clipped odes to the life of a working musician"
With her new record Drive & Cry, Emily Nenni returns to Nashville to brazenly tread the dark, worn and truthful side streets of a city that would rather blind you in the lights of its growing metropolis.
The lyrics are skilfully confessional and relatable, Nenni’s intrinsic sense of cool inviting us to romanticise such everyday topics as death and taxes, concerns over the circumference of one’s thighs, friends becoming foes, and making sure to tip your bartender.
It’s a mature record, one that has no scores to settle or fights to pick.
Read Holly Smith's full review of Emily Nenni's Drive & Cry.
BOWEN*YOUNG - Us
"A soulful exploration of Americana music"
Crafted by the husband and wife duo of Clare Bowen and Brandon Robert Young, Us shows off their ability to blend unique artistic styles to form a cohesive sound, one that's self-described as "cinematic Americana”.
The album kicks off with a burst of technicolour, driven by vibrant tracks like the harmonica-instilled ‘Water to Wine’ and the foot-stomping ‘Hair of the Dog’. Transitioning seamlessly, the electric guitar-driven ‘God Forbidden’ injects more grit and edge, while weaving Nashville-honored storytelling into each lyrical arc.
In the midst of the current wave of supersized albums, BOWEN*YOUNG – perhaps purposefully – leave listeners anticipating more.
Read Grace Derbyshire's full review of BOWEN*YOUNG's Us.
Tenille Arts - to be honest
"In the end, she was right. Love isn’t supposed to be easy, but honesty should be"
'to be honest' is an effort that sees Tenille Arts striving for just that: honesty with her music, her fans, herself.
While her fourth studio release starts off with a track as gorgeously vulnerable as the bleary-eyed ‘So Do I’, that spark of inspiration quickly falters. Where that candor attempts to shine through, it tends to get muffled under bold displays of superfluous pop and stumbling, albeit ambitious, lyricism.
It’s when Arts takes a step back and lets her songs simply be that the album accomplishes what it was created to.
Read Alli Patton's review of Tenille Art's to be honest.
For more country albums being released in 2024, see below:
