#530 (Contemporary Pop Country) on the Country DDS.
In previous years, one of the dominant press narratives in country music was that female artists were not getting enough support. Now Lainey Wilson is the current CMA Entertainer of the Year, while her last album Flared Pants Country also won Album of the Year at the CMA, ACM and Grammy Awards. She may still be the exception rather than the rule, but there is arguably no one currently receiving more support from the mainstream country music industry than Lainey.
Lainey Wilson is certainly part of the spearhead that is helping to make country more popular in pop music, and also the resurgence of country sounds in pop music. And after being abandoned by Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves and Taylor Swift, country music is looking not only for star power, but stability and loyalty. They think they’ve found that in Lainey. That’s why she’s the Entertainer of the Year, even though she’d have a hard time breaking into the top 10 in overall popularity for the genre.
Whirlwind is a good title for what Lainey has been through over the past few years. She still lives in a trailer in Nashville and wonders when her name will finally be called. Now she is one of the most awarded performers of the last year, with endorsement deals galore and even a spot in the cast of YellowstoneTheir new song “Middle Of It” sums it up well.
I made you lean on the Lord while you curse quietly
Oh, but one day you will miss these days
When you didn’t even know you were on the road
Knee-deep in weeds, you can only see a little bit of it
In the middle
This is Lainey Wilson’s story in a nutshell, and now that she’s found her way to the top, you can see that she’s not taking anything for granted. We don’t hear Lainey Wilson let off the gas. Whirlwind. The album captures some of the most passionate and stirring performances of her career. Whether it’s the somber “Broken Hearts Still Beat,” the incredible tone she holds towards the end of “Call A Cowboy,” or the touching moments of the closing track “Whiskey Colored Crayon,” Lainey gave it her all in the studio booth on this album and took nothing for granted.
A lot of great songs and lyrics adorn these 14 tracks. While there isn’t a song here that doesn’t have three writers on it, there isn’t one that Lainey herself has a hand on either. Even the radio-friendly singles like “Good Horses,” featuring Miranda Lambert, and “4X4XU,” co-written by Aaron Raitiere, don’t annoy you like country radio songs do. “Keep Up With Jones” builds its verses out of George Jones references, a common tactic in country songs these days. But it’s also a good example of Lainey helping to keep country music cool.
However, if you feel like there’s a “but” coming up, it’s not just because of a few mistitled tracks. Critics and purists will surely be clutching their hands to their mouths at the song “Ring Finger,” which starts off like a hard rock track and then turns into a sort of goodbye/attitude groove thing. Much like the song “Grease” from their last album Flared Pants CountryLainey is taking this opportunity to do something quirky and fun, and it’s probably so unconventional and out of place that it’s not really worth worrying about whether it’s a signal of a larger direction in her career. It’s just meant to be playful.
More disappointing and off-putting is the production work of longtime mainstream country producer Jay Joyce. Already notorious for pushing country artists in a rockier direction, he certainly lives up to that reputation. Whirlwind. While there may be no popular country artist whose authentic twang is more evident in his vocals than Lainey, there is probably not a single twangy note played on the entire album. Whirlwind record.
The compliment would be to call this album “Cowboy Noir.” But in truth, it’s just pop country. Perhaps Joyce’s theory was that the way to take Lainey to the next level after she climbed the mountain of country music was to make her music more palatable to the masses. Almost all notions of adding country music to her country songs and her country voice have been bypassed in favor of ultra-stylized and contemporary sounds that not only fail to honor the roots of Lainey’s sound, but are so heavy-handed that the production on some songs is downright distracting.
Even more disturbing is that many of these songs cry out for country instrumentation, but Jay Joyce never settles for it. “Call a Cowboy” is a waltz about the leathery nature of country folk, but the music is all spaced-out pop 808 programming and awful contemporary guitar sounds that rob the song of its robustness. “Counting Chickens” cries out for a banjo or fiddle, but it never comes.
Lainey Wilson’s last album Flared Pants Country saw acoustic guitar contributions from Molly Tuttle, including on the hit “Wildflowers and Wild Horses”. Charlie Worsham also played banjo and mandolin on it. It was a good mix of classic and contemporary country sounds. On WhirlwindSteel guitar and mandolin appear only on a few tracks, while “Omnichord synthesizer” and “Farfisa organ” are listed in the credits among Jay Joyce’s instrumental contributions.
Lainey Wilson got to where she is today by being “more country,” even if she wasn’t hardcore country herself. But now that country has become country, Joyce has taken her in a more contemporary direction. Post Malone’s Country Album F-1 billion has a lot more fiddle, steel guitar and twang. Zach Top is opening for Lainey Wilson on her current tour and is growing in popularity by embracing country sounds. Everyone wants to be country these days, from Lana Del Rey to singer and hip-hop artist Monica, and Jay Joyce decides it’s time to take the twang out of Lainey Wilson’s tunes.
The good news for Lainey Wilson and her fans is that the energy she brings to the album and the quality of the songs seem to outweigh the in-your-face and artsy production. Discerning ears will find it hard to brush aside many of the choices Jay Joyce made here, if only because it feels like Joyce and his musical theatrics are vying so hard for your attention.
But if you can look past the production, you’ll see that the album still has a lot to offer: There are some funny and saucy moments and it’s perhaps the best showcase of Lainey’s vocal qualities to date.
6.9/10
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Buy Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind
