Issue 13: A Matter of Taste
Reviewing Lainey Wilson's new album!
Welcome back to Band Practice, where I listen to a new album every day and write about my favorites. This week, it’s a shorter (and sweeter!) issue. We’re going to take a look at just one album: Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottom Country. Let’s get started!
Intro
I don’t believe there’s such a thing as good taste in music—or bad taste, for that matter. I thought about this as I came across the below tweet.1
I admit that I have spent plenty of time in my life trying to cultivate a “good” taste in music (or at least not a bad one). There were friends (or, let’s be honest, boys) to impress with knowledge of “cool” bands and artists. I used to see taste in music as something to be judged—good or bad, cool or cringe. But I don't think that way anymore.
This project has allowed me to move beyond those binaries. Listening to 367 albums (and counting) in a year has forced me to move outside of my musical comfort zones. I’ve listened to genres I don’t normally delve into—like country and electronic—and have found treasures that I absolutely love. This week’s pick from Lainey Wilson and Palaces from Flume are two such examples. It has also proved that there is still no way to keep up on all of the hot and trendy new albums that come out. So, instead of trying to cultivate “good” taste, I’ve focused on being adventurous and cultivating my own taste—no matter what anyone else thinks of it.
This project has taught me that being adventurous pays off. Some of the best surprises were from albums I chose without context, where the only information I had to go off of was the cover art, the artist’s name, the genre, and the title of the album. Albums from Metronomy, WulrD, and Yumi Zouma are some examples of great no-context selections from this year (including this week’s pick).
It has been exciting for me, in doing this project, to figure out what my taste is. What I’ve learned about myself is that I love the avant-garde. I love music that feels unique and fresh and genre-bending. The songs I love the most are usually the ones that don’t sound like anything else on the album. I live for songs with really good builds and breakdowns. And horns! Bring in a horn section and I will give you all of my riches!
In case I haven’t emphasized it before…here at Band Practice, we (me and y’all) are unconcerned with being trendy. We are unconcerned with having good taste. And we super don’t care what our Spotify Wrapped will be. This is a space for people who love music—of any and all sorts. It’s a space for those who want to be—even just a little—adventurous.
In the comments section of this issue, I would love to hear about your own taste in music. (I’ll also pose the question in the subscriber chat, if you prefer to give your answer there). What are some of your favorite artists or albums and what do you love about them? Do you swoon for a string moment? Enjoy a clever lyric? Or prefer instrumentals? What about music excites you? This is your space just as much as it is mine so please share!
Pick of the week
Bell Bottom Country — Lainey Wilson
Country
I’ve never been a huge fan of country music. Up until the past year or so, the country artists I’ve enjoyed listening to have been Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton—end of list. Contemporary country just seemed too twangy, too drawly, with too many songs about trucks to be appealing. So, how is it that Lainey Wilson’s twangy, drawly, truck-loving country album won me over? It’s the Dolly factor. Like Parton, Wilson is all heart. She’s earnest, authentic, and has a knack for whip-smart lyricism and storytelling. The singer/songwriter’s latest album, Bell Bottom Country, is a bridge from the Dolly-verse to contemporary popular country—and it may be enough to convert you to a country fan.
It is no surprise that Wilson credits Parton as her biggest influence and role model. She says she lives by the phrase “WWDD” or “what would Dolly do?”2 Much of the album feels like what Dolly would do (does?). From the homegrown stories in songs like “Watermelon Moonshine” and “Those Boots (Daddy’s Song)” to the heartfelt rambler “Wildflowers and Wild Horses,” these glimpses of Parton throughout the album made me feel right at home in a genre I don’t normally connect with.
Wilson describes her sound as, “country with a flare”—hence Bell Bottom Country. In an interview with Country Today on Apple Music she elaborated on her style: “it’s about leaning into whatever it is that makes you you…it’s about leaning into your story, your sound, where you’re from, how you were raised, and being proud of it—being unapologetically that.” And Wilson is unapologetic about her roots. She grew up on a farm in Baskin, Louisiana, a town of only 300 people, listening to country music like Glen Campbell, Buck Owens, and Hank Williams. “Country music for me and my family, it was more than music. We lived the words to those songs,” she said in an interview with The Advocate.3 You can see that in her approach to songwriting—every song is authentically Wilson, pulled from pages of her own life. She's a “hillbilly hippie” with a “heart like a truck.” She loves God and her family, and is confident in who she is.
Bell Bottom Country is tightly produced, with big band instrumentation perfectly balanced against Wilson’s powerhouse vocals and stripped-down arrangements during the softer moments. It pulls sounds from pop-country, rock, and folk (there’s even an electronic-leaning synthy moment in “Atta Girl”) while still feeling cohesive. It is clear the album was thoughtfully put together for the listener. The highs and lows in energy throughout the album feel intentionally ordered. Big boisterous songs are placed at just the right moments between down-tempo songs. Wilson hits those highs and the lows with such agility it had me in awe as I listened. “Can she do it all?” I asked myself. Yes, she can. Given that she just won (literally yesterday) the CMA female artist of the year award as well as best new artist, it seems like plenty of others agree.
Are you still feeling skeptical? Not a big country fan either? If you’re anything like me, here’s a few songs to map out how your listening experience might go. And if you thought I could make it through this review without using a cringy amount of country slang—well, bless your heart.
Track 1: Hillbilly Hippie
Straight out of the gate, Wilson tells you exactly who she is. “Hillbilly hippie right down to the bone. A little Mississippi, whole lotta rollin’ stone.” If you can’t handle that, abandon ship now. But this song gave me enough to want to stay on the ship and I’m glad I did. There are many clever lyrics like, “barefoot barbed wire boondocks till I tie-dye.” Till I TIE-DYE?? What?! Amazing. Her fiery voice commands alongside rollicking guitars and a knee-slapping rhythm (I think there’s literally knee slapping in the recording). Interest=piqued! While I wasn’t fully hooked yet, I wanted to keep listening. If you’re not fully convinced either, listen to the next track.
Track 2: Road Runner
It’s a rip-roarin’ honky-tonker! This is the song that hooked me. It starts off with a 1960s psychedelic guitar line. “What direction is she going in?” you will wonder. The answer is all directions. The band comes in like a stampede of horses. “Baby, I'm a roadrunner. Heads Carolina, tails Timbuktu,” Wilson wails. It’s thoroughly country and thoroughly rocking and, in a twist, it has a sweet little reggae beat at the end. It’s thrilling and so much fun.
Track 3: Watermelon Moonshine
Are you ready for a sweet first love story with a hillbilly twist? You are! This is the song that will make you appreciate her storytelling. It’s immersive. You feel like you’re on a porch sipping sweet tea while she recounts a tale from her teenage years, set to pirouetting acoustic and slide guitars. “We gave each other more than our hearts with the help of a mason jar,” she sings. I’m sipping my tea and she’s spilling it!
Track 6: Me, You, and Jesus
I’m not a religious person, but this is a delightful song. It’s genuine and sweet—not preachy or worshipy—just a slice of who she is. The bubbly mid-tempo beat is excellent, and the lyrics are sincerely touching. “When the world comes between us, y'all don't give up or give a damn, you just take me for who I am.” As with “Watermelon Moonshine,” you hear of the softer side of her voice and it is just as commanding as when she’s belting. Her plush drawl feels very much like Parton. At this point, it is clear that Wilson has range. She can hit those highs and lows, but it’s about to get higher.
Track 7: Hold My Halo
Hoo-boy! This song is a force. Is there a country equivalent to a “banger”? It’s hootenanny material. This is the song that had me sold and made me fall in love with this album. The banjo-driven intro signals that she’s up to something. “Sometimes a good good girl's gotta break out the denim. Gonna pour me a drink, pour my ass in 'em.” Hold your horses! In the chorus Wilson lets it rip over some crunchy electric guitar and a combustion of drums. “Tell that angel inside of me to hide her wings and lay low. Hold my halo.” It is pure, distilled attitude and I want to drink it up.
Track 13: Wildflowers and Wild Horses
Some songs are written for the fans, some songs you write for yourself, and some songs possess a sort of supernatural power unto themselves. They seem to appear out of the ether as a magical mysterious force. They’re the kind of song that make other artists jealous—so good you wish you could have written them. That’s what this song is. It’s chill-inducing. Will it be the improvised guitar riffs and swirling windy sounds in the intro or the reverberating plucky piano that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up? Or maybe it’s that moment when Wilson starts to sing, “in the middle of the night, I hear a corn field coyote cry,” like she’s calling out through the wilderness. There is so much to love. It’s a sprawling landscape of sound with delightful moments like a nimbly-finger-picked guitar solo.
As the penultimate track, it serves as a bookend to “Hillbilly Hippie” in that she reminds you who she is. “I'm four fifths of reckless and one fifth of jack. I push like a daisy through old sidewalk cracks. Yeah, my kinda crazy's still running its courses with wildflowers and wild horses,” she sings in the chorus. It has Parton written all over it and feels like a classic. At this point, it is clear that Wilson is truly something special.
Track 14 (last track): What’s Up (What’s Goin On)
Then she has the audacity to close out the album with a cover of “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes! You know, the “heyyy yeah yeah yeah…what’s going on,” song? I find the original version endearingly nostalgic but also very grating. This version is—I’m going to commit to it—better than the original. Wilson brings it up-tempo and gives it oomph and power and makes it really fun. “Wildflowers and White Horses” feels like the real ending to the album and this feels like the most bonus of bonus tracks. It solidifies that Wilson has range. She can do rock, she can do country, she can do it all.
If Lainey Wilson is the future of country—and I think she is—sign me up. I will make myself a seat on that Dolly-verse→contemporary popular country bridge and happily listen 'til the cows come home.4
Also available on Apple Music
A *bonus* playlist
Bell Bottom Country is one of a handful of country albums I listened to this year. There were quite a few other standouts like Welcome To The Block Party from Priscilla Block and Bronco from Orville Peck. If you want some more excellent country sounds, I threw together a little bonus playlist for this issue. These are some of my favorite country songs (and a couple countryish songs) from this year and last year, unmeticulously ordered. You can listen here: Spotify, Apple Music.
13 more albums I listened to
The Space Between — Alice Boman (Alternative)
The Loneliest Time — Carly Rae Jepsen (Pop)
BIB10 — Bibio (Electronic)
Can You Afford To Lose Me? — Holly Humberstone (Pop)
Light Moving Time — Babehoven (Rock)
some kind of peace — piano reworks — Ólafur Arnalds (Classical Crossover)
Leaving All The Time — Bye Beneco (Alternative)
Luv 4 Rent — Smino (Hip-Hop/Rap)
Nacarile — iLe (Latin Alternative)
LIFE IN HELL — Lancey Fou (Alternative Rap)
worm food — Cavetown (Pop)
Alpha Zulu — Phoenix (Alternative)
SAP — Okay Kaya (Alternative)
The playlist!
These are my favorite songs off of each new album I listened to this year listed in chronological order of listening. The playlist is looong so, if you want to hear the songs from the albums in this issue, scroll to the end. I update the playlist with every issue.
365 Albums in 2022 - Apple Music playlist
365 Albums in 2022 - Spotify playlist
Thanks for reading! For the next issue, I’ll be listening to albums from Drake & 21 Savage; Christine and the Queens presents Redcar; Weyes Blood; and plenty of others. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss it!
What have you been listening to lately? Anything good? Let me know in the comments.
The cutoff for Wrapped calculations was actually October 31st—not sure when it is for Apple Music.
Source: Interview with Tamron Hall
Fun fact! I thought about ending with the sentence, “What would Dolly do? She Dolly did.” So, just let that marinate as you decide how much you want to judge me for it.
My genre is jjst about anything except RAP. Not my cup of tea in the least bit. But I think country is still my favorite due to the story telling. And lately I have been listening to Classic Vinyl. Brings back so many memories.