

KSTĪ package of sugar-coated drainer’s delight dropped in March as Drain Gang members Bladee and Ecco2k surprise-released their latest collaborative album, Crest, following up their respective 2021 solo efforts The Fool and PXE. Busbee had been a longtime collaborator who helped create Maren’s breakout single, “My Church.”īorn out of struggle, Humble Quest cements itself as an essential release not only in Morris’ discography, but in country music as a whole. The album closes with “What Would This World Do,” a ballad dedicated to busbee, the songwriter and producer who died in 2019. (She later suffered postpartum depression.) The title track tackles finding a purpose in life and learning along the way. “Hummingbird” is an ode to her son, written on the day she learned she was pregnant. “Circles Around This Town” opens the album, recounting Morris’ journey from Texas to Nashville “Good Friends” celebrates friendship and love is alive on several tracks as she sings to and with her husband.Ī songwriter at heart, Morris gets more personal on some cuts.

Maren Morris’ honest and relatable lyrics are arguably what propelled her career, and she hasn’t lost that touch on Humble Quest. Chris RitterĪt the heart of classic country is storytelling. She laments the end of the world before admitting, “The only place that matters is by your side.” Let’s hope they never leave. On the latter, Lenker sings a line that could only be interpreted as a salute to her band. They’re as cuttingly specific on the whimsical “Spud Infinity” as they are on tender tear-jerkers like “Change,” “Dried Roses,” “12,000 Lines,” and “The Only Place.”. There’s rickety, screen-porch folk in “Red Moon,” euphoric pop rock on “Little Things,” and even beat-based vignettes on the quietly lovely “Wake Me Up To Drive.” Anchoring it all is Lenker, whose lyrics threaten to outshine the jamming at any moment. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is Big Thief’s best album yet, and it’s as magical and ambitious as the title suggests. What to do with all that success? They ignored it, holed up together, and outdid themselves again. By 2020, the Brooklyn-bred indie-folk quartet had released four albums in as many years-each seemingly more acclaimed than the last-and their chief songwriters, Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker, had launched illustrious solo careers as well, particularly with the release of Lenker’s songs. Until then, “let the credits roll.” - KSTīig Thief have a knack for outdoing themselves. Though listeners everywhere will no doubt relate to many of the themes of rising, it’s also a tool to help Maia come to terms with her own past and a launch pad to a better and brighter future. “dance (end of the world)” helps to round out the album, celebrating love and life. After subsequent songs tackle topics like loss, finding balance in life, and growing up too quickly, “haze” brings a hopeful turn, suggesting that all of this uncertainty can lead to great things. The album almost feels like a movie, and on openers “mona lisa” and “learn to love you,” Maia finds a desire to step out and spotlight herself, though she worries about being tied to her past on “victim of nostalgia” while blending older genre styles. The result is an indie-pop dreamscape centered on self-reflection and transitioning into a new era. The final part to a trilogy that began with 2020’s dawn and dusk EPs plays like a combination of its predecessors. “Fun existential crisis”-that’s how Maia, aka mxmtoon, would describe her sophomore album, rising, in three words. Read on and learn more about the 25 projects that have made the biggest impact on Genius users in the first half of this year. The tally is heavy high-profile hip-hop LPs, naturally, but there are also country, indie, pop, and Latin albums competing for top honors. This list doesn’t just affirm the continued relevance of the album-it also showcases the diversity of taste represented in the Genius Community. The Genius Community contains many such music fans, and over the last month, these passionate individuals joined forces to vote on and write up our Best Albums of 2022 So Far list. While singles have arguably come to dominate the conversation, there are still plenty of listeners who believe in the old-school idea of collections of songs that deserve to be heard together in a specific order. The further we get into the streaming era, the more music fans like to debate whether albums still matter.
