Album Rating: 3.5

"So based on your score for this halloween is less than a 4 and you played it like 36+ times!"

It's been a year and I tend to listen to albums on repeat. That said: probably, yes, haha.

Album Rating: 3.5

"When you get to Poison please follow along with the lyrics."

And Sowing is a sadist.

Album Rating: 4.5

"You reckon he'll keep leaning into a poppier sound. I don't think I'd mind too much, I really love the production, especially on songs like Rubber"

Tough to predict. I think he has the talent to make it work, but I would miss his rougher side. To me that's what conveys the struggle (with addiction especially), not this gleaming and immaculately produced stuff. At the same time, now that he's sober, maybe a sound that's more at peace with itself makes sense.

Regardless, I'm curious what his next LP will hold because it will contain all of the emotional fallout over his divorce with Kacey Musgraves. I don't think that means it will necessarily take a rougher edge, but it might. I hope Ruston is OK - he finally gets sober and then has to deal with this breakup I mean jfc can this dude catch a break. Some of the lyrics on here about Kacey are heartbreaking. He praises her as his saving grace and his reason for triumphing over cocaine and amphetamine, so I hope he's able to stay strong even without her direct support (although from what I've read the separation was extremely amicable and she still does all she can to support him, musically and emotionally).

Album Rating: 3.5

Have you heard Asshole? There's this one verse:



My wife picked me up and she gripped the wheel

"How dare you, who are you?" and shit got real

She was crying, I was playing a game on my phone

Tryin' to think if there was any weed left at home



Which I mean, HAS to be hyperbolic, but (and I haven't listened to the lyrics too closely on this album yet) I love hearing him contrasting the shitty person he was (and maybe sometimes still is) and the fact that he's trying to get better. Working through that in the context of an (like you said) amicable divorce would be super interesting. Yeah, though, I hope he's doing well.

Country is the new hip-hop smh

When country is at its best, its a top 5 genre for me. There's a hilarious amount of bad country out there which makes me feel the need to keep up a rearguard defense when talking about country (ie: "it's country but it's really good country trust me!").

Album Rating: 4.5

I can relate to that. Country has such a bad reputation and maybe it's partially deserved, but either the genre has taken off in the last 5 years or I've just started to open my ears.

Radio country is about the worst thing I've ever heard. I think that most people's exposure to the genre consists of overly twangy shallow sounding radio garbage, which is why the general consensus is that country blows ass.

Halfway through this and it's great but if I'm being honest i think Halloween is considerably better atm

Album Rating: 4.0

There are definitely fluctuations in the quality of country over time but I would not identify the last 5 years as a particular peak. If anything the first 5 years of the 2010s were better imo.



Halloween is very good for sure but I found it a bit more generic melodically speaking (plus the interludes are kind of annoying). Same issue with Dying Star which was also fairly overlong. This one is tighter on a by-song basis. Maybe nothing quite as starkly striking as “Poison” but this feels like a strong maturation overall with a bit more confidence/personality. I do still think is songwriting could have a bit more bite though. He writes very universally which I don’t necessarily prefer in country. But this is still so solidly and professionally done I can’t help but kind of love it.

Album Rating: 4.5

I'm certain that my view of country is based on when I started paying attention to non mainstream stuff in the genre (5 years ago). Jason Isbell's Southeastern is proof that the genre's surge started sooner.

Album Rating: 4.0

To be fair I might be biased in the same way because I started getting into country ca 2012-13. Though I tend to prefer 90s and early 00s country overall. I also view country very broadly and am counting the full range of alt-country and Americana under the title. As far as more straight country goes that’s definitely what’s more in vogue currently as opposed to early 10s when there was a big surge of folkier and more rock based Americana.

Album Rating: 4.0

southeastern made me a country fan

Album Rating: 5.0

I think country is the new hip-hop where people are learning it's dumb to say "I listen to everything except for rap and country" - Folks are realizing the genres have a lot to offer, especially if you look in the right places

Album Rating: 2.0 | Sound Off

Who says that though? Rap is super popular. "Everything but metal and country" is probably more common

Album Rating: 4.0

I listen to everything but rap

Album Rating: 2.0 | Sound Off

lame

Album Rating: 5.0

When you're from a rural area and both need to show you're too cool to be rural, so you don't listen to country, but you're still racist, so don't listen to hip hop. This may be simplifying it a bit but that's what the phrase was when I grew up lol

Metal also consisted of like Metallica, Seether, and Scene music though, so they also didn't really listen to metal, but none of us knew that at the time

writing off any major genre is lame except classical

Album Rating: 4.0

even people that don’t like rap should appreciate illmatic/36 chambers though