Having had a breakthrough hit in 2021 with
Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'
and its accompanying single "Things a Man Oughta Know,"
Lainey Wilson
offers something of a manifesto with its 2022 follow-up,
Bell Bottom Country
. Take the title slightly literally: it's deliberately, defiantly retro, dredging up images of the 1970s, an era when country singers weren't necessarily wearing bell-bottom jeans but rockers certainly were.
Wilson
simultaneously belongs to both camps, reviving some of the spirit of the outlaws and the hippie country-rockers that served as their counterparts. It's a territory previously explored by the likes of
Eric Church
and
Miranda Lambert
, a pair of singers produced by
Jay Joyce
, who also helms
.
Joyce
's sinewy yet nimble production is filled with muscle and color, its shifting sounds emphasizing how
doesn't stay in one place: she can be a defiant rocker but also a sensitive troubadour, a writer with a flair for melody and a weakness for puns, a singer whose sentimental streak is happily tarnished by a gritty twang. She occasionally leans into the rock aspects of her persona a bit too hard -- even if she betters the original, there was no need for a cover of
4 Non Blondes
' "What's Up?" -- and she does show a fondness for country corn, yet those traits are offset by her knack for narrative and natural earthiness, qualities that help make
a compelling listen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine