I very rarely do album reviews but at this point this is practically a Lainey Wilson fan page so I’d been impatiently waiting for her new album. Whirlwind, the latest from the GRAMMY winning artist, is finally out today (Friday 23rd August 2024). The singles previously released from it gave me high hopes. You may have already heard Good Horses feat. Miranda Lambert during the Twisters movie. But for me Lainey’s latest offering is more than just a good album. I reckon it ticks all the big country music boxes while dodging the major cliché bullets thanks to Lainey’s ever-fresh writing.
In my, highly biased, opinion this latest album tips a stetson to country traditions, showing off so many of the elements that drew me to the genre:
THE DRINK SONG
It is hard to find a fresh take on songs about whiskey in a genre that’s given us everything from a songs about drinking yourself to death, to songs comparing women and whiskey, several about getting beaten up by a guy called Jack Daniels and even a song sung from Alcohol’s POV. But Whiskey Colored Crayon feels like it does what country does best – sneaking up and punching you in the heart with a surprising concept you couldn’t have predicted from the first line.
THE PLAYFUL ONE
Country has a great heritage of songs that don’t take themselves too seriously, and the whimsical Counting Chickens about getting carried away daydreaming about the next step of a relationship delivers. The bouncy song’s made even better when you clock the cheeky reference to Lainey’s boyfriend (Devlin “Duck” Hodges) in the last line.
THE SONGS THAT REFERENCE OTHER SONGS
There’s tradition of country chart songs referencing other country songs, Like Old Dominion’s Song For another time or Scotty McCreery’s Damn Strait. But not all tribute songs are equal. Some have been guilt of reverently name-checking a 90s country classic over an autotuned pop track that suggests they’ve never actually heard the referenced 90s country song. But not so here. If you didn’t’ know, Lainey’s Keep Up With Jones, is a tribute to late country legend George Jones, AKA King George, ‘The Possum’ and Tammy Wynette’s ex-husband. She manages to work in several of his song titles and lyrics like White Lightning and playing possum, and does so with traditional country style I reckon George would’ve approved of. See also track 13, Devil Don’t Go There for its references to the Charlie Daniels Band and 90s country fave Joe Nichols.
THE BOOT SCOOTER
I cannot line dance. I have tried. I ruin the line every time. It’s something about the left and right. I’m mostly sitting about listening to lyrics that make my heart break, while sipping something that makes my heart burn. But for so many other country fans a coordinated shimmy is an integral part of their love of the genre. And they’ve not been left out with Hang Tight Honey inspiring line dance choreography across the world (and the internet).
THE ANGRY SONG(S)
If you’ve seen blokes retreat to the edge of the dance floor when Carrie Underwood’s Before He Cheats comes on, you’ll know no one does attitude (or murder) like the women in country songs. Is it even a country album if I don’t have something to add to my emergency break Up playlist? I’d argue not. So I’m adding Ring Finger, which delivers the bonus lyrical wordplay of turning a well-known phrase on its head. “I got the ring, he got the finger’. Also see track 13, Devil Don’t Go There for further catharsis.
AUTHENTICITY
Guilty. I feel protective of my genre and my western wear when everyone jumps on the bandwagon, whether their influenced by Vogue or Beyoncé But I have no right to. I own multiple pairs of cowboy boots but am 100% a big city chick and will always choose the hotel rather than camp at the festival. Lainey though, has all the rights. Coming from a Louisiana town fo just a few hundred people, when she sings ‘I was born in boots on humble ground’ in Country’s Cool Again, you believe her. She sings how she talks and from Loretta’s Coal Miner’s Daughter to Dolly’s Coat of Many Colours, country is always best when people are telling their own stories.
THE TRUCK SONG
Well sort or… a 4 X 4. It would’ve been hard for Lainey to top her existing truck song repertoire after hits Heart like a Truck and Wait in the Truck. Nevertherless, with 4x4xU she’s given us another for the ode to vehicle sub-genre genre which didn’t settle for some the lazy ‘I have a truck, get in it’ calibre of writing which has graced country radio over the past couple of decades.
Like her previous album there’s a satisfying mix from the happy hippie vibes to sorrowful story songs, though it feels overall more optimistic in mood. I’m undecided on my favourite track of the 14; that’ll take a few more listens to make itself known. At the moment Call a Cowboy has been replayed most for its hairbrush-singalong-ability (a technical term) and for my appreciation of a lyrical flip (using two meanings to the phrase ‘Call a cowboy’). But Devil Don’t Go There is gaining, having hit a nerve because I’m apparently still bitter about a cruel crush from 1996.
Have you listened yet? Let me know your favourite Lainey Wilson song, new or old.
CJ
Brits in Boots 