Christian Lee Hutson: Paradise Pop. 10 (Anti)
Outside it’s loud, bellicose and ugly. And the future doesn’t look too rosy, either. But Christian Lee Hutson has his own worries. His is a world of interiority, where his many anxieties, heightened no doubt by his battles with OCD, fuel his meticulously crafted songs of insight and self-doubt laced with warmth and sardonic humour.
For his third album the 34-year-old Los Angeles-raised Missourian revisits old haunts and new stories with the help of Maya Hawke, his celebrity girlfriend and fellow singer-songwriter. The subtle production of his old friend Phoebe Bridgers savours the character in these songs, which reference folk, Americana and many parts in between.
Waxahatchee: Tigers Blood (Anti)
On her sixth album as Waxahatchee, Katie Crutchfield sounds revitalised, revelling in the confidence gained from sobriety as chronicled in the 2020 album Saint Cloud. Tigers Blood is timeless Americana, local and personal in its storytelling but universal in its character and grit.
The Alabaman’s blending of her rock’n’roll spirit with her country heart is a joy. The decision to invite the young but brilliant guitarist MJ Lenderman into the studio is rewarded with two classic tracks, the co-written anguish of Right Back to It and Crutchfield’s own unforgettable 3 Sisters. Her wiry, heartfelt voice has never sounded better.
Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past Is Still Alive (Nonesuch)
This is a wonderfully passionate, political and playful album that seems even more relevant since the US elections. Alynda Segarra, the 36-year-old also known as Hurray for the Riff Raff, who identifies as nonbinary, says the album grapples with time, memory, love and loss. They could have added that they were also dealing with the reality of being an outsider.
The Past Is Still Alive distils Segarra’s experiences into a collection of Americana songs that ache with real heart yet never once feel close to surrender or cliche. It is angry, anxious, loving and daringly vulnerable, the peak of their recording career to date.
Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days (Via Records/Thirty Tigers)
Beyoncé delivered the year’s most uplifting country hit, Texas Hold ’Em, on her provocative album Cowboy Carter. The boys in Nashville were not amused, and they duly snubbed her at their annual backslapping event. Willie Nelson, who’s now 91, made a cameo appearance on Cowboy Carter and also released two excellent albums – how does he do it? – with his version of Warren Zevon’s Keep Me in Your Heart ripe to bring a tear to your eye. But it was the return of the Bakersfield Sound devotee Dwight Yoakam that lit up the winter months with his best album since the early 2000s.
Oisín Leech: Cold Sea (Outside Music)
The wilds of Malin, in north Co Donegal, provided the place and no doubt helped inspire this quiet gem of a debut. Leech is on sabbatical from The Lost Brothers, his much-loved Americana-influenced duo with Mark McCausland. He has said that The Lost Brothers will return but that this solo project was something he had to do.
These songs, more steeped in folk than in country, nestle up and whisper in your ear. They are deliberately uncluttered, even sparse. Like Malin itself, space and air are everywhere and the pace is unhurried. Yet, paradoxically, there is emotional intensity aplenty.
