Somehow, another summer has flown by, and while I try my damndest to cover as many album releases as possible, there’s never enough time. So, before we leave the Summer of 2025 in the rearview, I felt the need to do an abbreviated overview of the below releases that we just didn’t get around to featuring in our routine, full-length coverage. Some of them prove to be as pivotally impactful, if not moreso, than some of the LPs we featured over the course of the past three months!
Dierks Bentley- Broken Branches (Capitol)
A familiarly cozy and mostly rootsy eleventh studio album from one of mainstream country’s most reliable artists of the past two decades. Like previous entries in his impressively consistent catalog, Broken Branches is sturdily anchored in Bentley’s signature gritty gravel, his straight-forwardly hooky lyricism and song-selection, and his loyal brand of polished, grass-influenced 21st-century country. With the exception of the grungy single, “She Hates Me” (which feels even more like a sore thumb in the context of this LP) the songs are uniformly strong; always pleasant and often-times excellent. The roster of guests is loaded too, with Miranda Lambert, John Anderson, Riley Green, and Stephen Wilson Jr. all making appearances. This album is one that soaks in nicely with repeat listens. It’s not a career record nor one that desperately clings to mainstream relevance, but now that his chart glories do seem behind him, it’d be perfect timing for #12 to aim for an Up on the Ridge-level moment.
Cam- All Things Light (RCA)
An undeniably turning-point record for this country-pop chanteuse, the very aptly-titled All Things Light luminously fulfills the prophecy of 2020’s predecessor, The Outside, which solidified that her artistic ambition and sonic vision would take her far beyond the Nashville scene that initially broke her. This record positively glows and inspires thanks to Cam’s pure, honeyed vocals, the enthralling harmonies, the golden folk-pop production, and the especially weighty and reflective songwriting surrounding life’s greatest mysteries and purposes. The stylistic brushstrokes beautifully and cohesively cascade between everything from funky 80s grooves and eerie pop-noir to lilting cowgirl balladry and slinky folk-pop that recalls Jewel at her peak. And her voice is utterly captivating in any of these settings, with a special allure that serves as an anchor throughout the record. It’s a gorgeously bold creative and life statement, and really serves as Cam’s coming-out party as one of the adult-pop scene’s most potent and taken-for-granted talents. This is flat-out one of the year’s best records thus far; I’m sort of ashamed that I didn’t give it the full-review treatment upon initial release. May this refreshing and endearing artist no longer be slept on.
Mary Chapin Carpenter- Personal History (Thirty Tigers)
At her very core, Mary Chapin Carpenter has always been a folk singer-songwriter first and foremost. This was always a clear identity of hers, even at the peak of her powers in the mainstream country universe in the 1990s. And while you can’t fault listeners for longing for the razor-sharp wit and jangly hooks of her biggest hits each time she releases an album, the past two decades of her catalog have firmly planted her artistic direction and passion squarely in this formative wheelhouse. These records have also firmly established that Chapin inarguably ranks among the great folk poets of not only her generation, but ever. Her seventeenth LP, another soft-spoken and honestly raw journey through her latest phase of life (in this case, staring down the barrel of 70), is as prolific and moving a piece of evidence of this gift as any record she’s crafted this millennium. It’s an album that commands intense focus and introspection from the listener, certainly a tall order amongst the general population in 2025. But there is deeply rewarding musical poetry to lose yourself in if you commit. She soulfully reconciles her past, present, and future over the course of these eleven performances, with the orchestral-leaning “The Savings Things”, the ramshackling “Bitter Ender”, and the imaginative “The Night We Never Met” being the prime highlights.
Charley Crockett- Dollar A Day (Island)
Easily this generation’s most prolific young artist, Dollar A Day marks Charley Crockett’s second album already in 2025, and his fifteenth overall since debuting just a decade ago. Reuniting with Shooter Jennings in the producer’s chair, it’s also the second entry in a purported trilogy by the pair steeped in a 70s inspired fusion of country music and well of other classic influences. And Lord, what a mighty fine fusion it is. Traditional and Outlaw country remain the ultimate bedrock of Crockett’s sound, but as always he infuses it with thick slabs of R&B, rock & roll, and straight-up soul, resulting in a style that is simply timeless more than retro. His thick, booming twang once again strikes that tremendous multi-genre sweet spot, while Shooter’s production reciprocates with an equally generous sonic blend that also adventurously traverses through honky tonk, Outlaw fare, Spaghetti Westerns, spooky psychedelics, country tearjerkers, and unhinged Southern funk. Meanwhile, Crockett’s smooth stylings recall everyone from Waylon and Kristofferson to the Allmans and Jimmy Buffett. These tracks could have easily raised hell on 70s airwaves, and deserve to be a staple on any 2020s playlist. Another superb Crockett record, another delicious feast across the wide spectrum of American roots music.
Kesha- Period (Kesha)
An artist’s first release on an independent label always feels like a cathartic declaration of independence, that moment where one finally breaks free from all of the politics and creative interference of a major label. To say that this vibe and such emotional and artistic stakes feel especially elevated on Kesha’s sixth studio album would certainly be an understatement, given the well-publicized drama and abuse that she endured on the way to Period. The record opens naturally with “Freedom”, a drawn-out and dramatic battle cry that eventually whiplashes into a vintage Kesha anthem, with the sentiment “I only drink when I’m happy and I’m drunk right now” that recalls her era as the early 2010s’ favorite pop party-girl. Similar to her past few albums, the record proceeds as a balance between the wild, unhinged fare of her commercial heyday and the more mature, reflective, and sonically diverse tones she’s increasingly struck since 2017’s Rainbow. Only this time its without any semblance of the bumpers that her former producers or label could straddle her with, resulting with the positively chaotic, diverse, ultimately charming, and undeniably entertaining record you’d expect from her in such a unrestricted environment.
Lorde- Virgin (Republic)
The fourth studio effort from pop and rock’s moodiest New Zealand import arrives after one of Lorde’s typically long hibernations between records, and finds her pivoting back to the darker, more introspective aesthetics that she traded in for the sunnier vibes of 2021’s Solar Power. With her songwriting as cutting and gripping as ever before, these songs find the artist unpacking the weighty moments that have come to define the back-half of her twenties: from the lukewarm reception of Power and messy romantic and familial relationships, to personal reckonings with both an eating disorder and her own gender identity. Given the gravity of both these subject matters and her talent as a performer and songwriter, it should come as no surprise that the collection results in some of the most captivating pop and rock songs so far this decade. Virgin is both a return to the origins of Lorde’s catalog, but also a bold artistic step forward given the swath of uncharted lyrical territory it tackles. It also serves a stirring reminder that, while she has never replicated the commercial magnitude of “Royals” or “Team” (and singles like “Man of the Year” or “What Was That” are indeed worthy), she has continued to operate at those same musical and emotional heights in the dozen years since.
Ashley Monroe- Tennessee Lightning (Mountainrose Sparrow)
With the blistering hat-trick of albums that consisted of Like A Rose (2013), The Blade (2015), and Sparrow (2018), underground country darling Ashley Monroe produced one of the most impressive album runs of the 2010s, not just in country circles, but across the general music landscape. Her moonlighting as one-third of the fantastic Pistol Annies only elevated this impressive profile. But the alt-pop tinged Rosegold in 2021 proved to mark the end of an era for Monroe, both creatively and personally, as she soon found herself fighting for her life due to a diagnosis with a rare form of blood cancer. Thankfully, Tennessee Lightning finds Monroe both in remission and, as a result, completely rejuvenated in both her life and music. This renewed sense of life, bolstered by a return to her country and Americana roots, make her plaintive country wail as haunting as ever before, and sends the heft of her always-rich material to new heights of guttural wonder. The generous 17-track list offers up collabs with the likes of T. Bone Burnett, Marty Stuart, Brendan Bensen, and Karen Fairchild among others, while the swampy Delta country blues of centerpiece, “Magnolia” feels like the resurrection of Bobbie Gentry we’ve been waiting decades for. In the case of Ashley Monroe, lightning is certainly something that strikes twice, and then some.
Lukas Nelson- American Romance (Sony)
The initial solo recording by second generation star Lukas Nelson arrives after a solid decade-and-a-half run with his crackling country-rock outfit, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. And given the imposing and unavoidable shadow of his great father, Willie Nelson, always looming above, it’s the perfect time to finally branch out on his own artistic journey, as his own bona-fide talents are now well established. Of course, hiring Shooter Jennings as the record’s producer may seem to further heighten those generational pressures, but name a better pair to relate with one another on these matters, or to equally understand the kind of special collaborative camaraderie exemplified by their fathers’ friendship. With that said, American Romance quickly makes it clear that it is not a revival of Wanted! or Waylon & Willie, but rather its own singular and modern statement on the basics of love. Willie’s presence and influence is indeed always present, in Lukas’ songwriting, his soulfully high-lonesome twang, and his ability to seamlessly color in and outside the traditional country fringes. But this is the showcase of a fully-bloomed artist who has mastered the art of balancing his influences with his own unique voice, which proves to be a sterling narrator for the dizzying phases of a classic love story. Both his performance and Jennings’ production are nimble and tender, or raucous and full-throttled in all the right spots. The results make for a modern country-rock marvel that does its sterling lineages proud.
Sunny Sweeney- Rhinestone Requiem (Thirty Tigers)
It’d be far too easy to proclaim Rhinestone Requiem, with its unapologetic devotion and authentic passion for traditional country and honky-tonk, as a record perfectly timed to meet the present resurgence in favor for neo-trad sounds in the country mainstream. Except for the fact that it’s just another stellar entry in a catalog of similarly styled and excellent releases that Sunny Sweeney has been churning out for the better part of two decades. Long before acts like Zach Top and the like gained an unlikely foothold in the Nashville scene, or even Margo Price’s first, and now second, acts of carrying a similar flag on the Americana scene. Timeless tales of divorce, drinking, and heartbreak not only happen to be Sweeney’s favorite topics to sing about, but it’s also naturally the best setting for her equally harsh and beautiful twang. Per usual, she narrates this latest collection of honky short stories with a charismatic mix of wit, sass, grit, and grace, and the spitfire musicianship is spot-on as well. We’d be proclaiming this excellent record as a revelation if its ragged riches weren’t so par for the Sweeney course at this point. But it deserves such widespread praise nonetheless.
Hayley Williams- Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party (Post Atlantic)
After a five-year absence that included a Grammy-winning refocus as the face of Paramore, Hayley Williams returns to the solo environment she first indulged into to critical acclaim during the COVID years. With the slyly rolled out, eighteen-track Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, this immediately feels like Williams raising the stakes and impact of her already potent solo efforts dramatically. It’s an overflowing outpouring of moody and introspective songwriting and earthquaking performances that represent some of the most revealing and rocking moments of her entire two decades in the music mainstream. The title-track and centerpiece of the record uses the notorious superficiality of those chiche-ridden, lower-broadway bachelerotte parties in Nashville (Williams’ hometown in addition to being the South’s music capital) as an impetus for all of the musical and contemplative intensity that carries throughout the entire record. Williams reckons with a barrage of weighty and varied issues, from the conflict of professional glories and personal devastation, to the conflict of ones’ cultural roots and the matured, sociopolitical viewpoints of their adulthood. Throughout it all, Williams expectedly sets all of this fierce catharsis to undeniably fetching and accessible layers of slick indie-rock riffs, rapturous emo outcries, and bop-worthy beats. It feels like a descendent of albums like Jagged Little Pill and Tidal. A significant rock moment from an artist who is one of that modern scene’s most vital leading ladies, regardless of the iteration under which she releases music.
The 706 
Leave a comment