The sophomore release from fast-rising country star Alexandra Kay is released this upcoming Friday. Her name has been seemingly everywhere the last couple of years so my anticipation for the release is pretty high! I’m familiar with at least a couple of the singles and love what I’ve heard so far, so join me in checking out what the rest of the album has in store for us!
Starting with some beautiful, folky strings, Kay’s beautiful vocals soon come in over the top of a great acoustic chord progression for ‘Better Off’. It instantly gives off vibes of Carole King or Paula Cole in the best ways. It builds up perfectly into a powerful, bittersweet chorus, and one that will be stuck in my head for days to come! The whole song is beautifully bittersweet, and is a damn powerful opener to the album, setting the tone rather perfectly!
‘Nobody’ picks up the energy a bit, having more of an Americana feel to it than the folky previous song. The driving bass drum is excellent, and the layers throughout from all the different strings is honestly phenomenal song production. It once again builds to a massive chorus, one definitely designed to be played to huge festival crowds. I’m honestly shocked it hasn’t been a single already because it’s hugely catchy and would do amazingly on the radio. Hopefully it’s a post release one! It gives off more Janet Devlin or Caylee Hammack vibes this time, which I love just as much. It’s a simple arrangement and in and out in under three minutes, but is a fantastic song and an easy early highlight!
‘Straight for the Heart’ changes the pace yet again, this time feeling more like a straight up radio-country track. It’s got a bit of a rock edge to it too, the chorus being massive, the distorted guitars adding a lot to the sound. It’s easy to see why it was chosen as a single and is doing incredibly already on that front. It’s got a little bit of the good Taylor Swift era to it, or even Erin Kinsey. Heck, we even get some awesome guitar soloing tucked away behind some of the vocals, which adds and even greater layer to it. This is another phenomenal track, and the second that easily makes it onto our playlist, it’s that good!
The energy drops back down with ‘Right Now’. It’s a beautiful modern country ballad, the focus on the acoustic guitar, electronic beats and Kay’s utterly incredible vocals. It’s a similar story on tracks like ‘Old Me’. Both are fantastic tracks in their own right, and though I am not usually into the more electronic based drums, they fit both of these songs perfectly. And of course, lyrically and vocally, Kay once again knocks it out of the park.
Speaking of ballads, there are a few more throughout. From ‘Hell Right’ to ‘The Last’ to the closer, there are some excellent, acoustic-based country ballads on this album! All three are excellent tracks in their own right, and are only grouped together as they are pretty similar and I don’t want to repeat myself over and over here, gushing too hard over her! They’re all packed full of amazing lyrics, beautiful choruses and some great instrumentation. The strings and piano on the latter give it the perfect finale feel to it, while the former is another big highlight for me! Heck, ‘Measure of a Man’ is also pretty ballad-like, though it definitely also has more of a rock edge to it like ‘Straight for the Heart’ does. I’d definitely put it up there with that track in terms of quality, too!
Tracks like ‘Tomorrow Problems’ and ‘Feminine Energy’ are more like that mid 2000s pop-rock country style that it’s so hard not to love. Catchy, bouncy songs about having a good time is what country is all about out, and both of these do that to perfection. They’re both awesome songs and a style that Kay does so well, showing that she really is multi-talented in the country world! Both are big high points of the album too, with the latter even having another great guitar solo in it. I haven’t spoke enough about it yet, but her band have also killed it on this album, from start to finish!
The final two tracks from the album, ‘Big Boy Boots’ and lead single ‘Cupid’s a Cowgirl’, give off similar Americana-pop-rock energy that I honestly love. She manages to let loose a little with both tracks, her attitude coming out perfectly. Of course the single is an excellent track, but the former is just as good as it, and could very well be a big single in its own right. However, both songs are incredible and once again huge highlights on an album honestly packed full of them!
Overall: This is an incredible country album! We sadly missed her debut release when it dropped, but having gone back and revisited it since I do enjoy it. However, this is very much a step up from that, Kay really hitting her stride in a massive way with this album. There isn’t a bad song on the album and some of them are easily up there with some of the best country tracks of the year. It’s very easy to see why she’s become such a big name so fast, and is quickly establishing herself to be one of the biggest names in the genre in just a few years! I can’t recommend this enough to anyone even slightly into country music, check it out immediately!
The Score: 9/10