Lori McKenna Crafts Choruses That Pierce Your Heart on ‘The Bird & The Rifle’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

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lorimc2There isn’t a Lori McKenna-penned song in existence that won’t find some way to get to you, whether it’s making you crack up, cry your eyes out, or fall madly in love. And though the songstress has written for seemingly every country artist under the sun, it’s McKenna’s own raw emotion-packed vocals that truly do her songs justice.

This same McKenna continues her reign as one of the greatest songwriters today with her new record The Bird & The Rifle. Produced sparely and warmly by renowned studio wiz Dave Cobb, it is one of McKenna’s rawest and most rooted works yet.

Like only the best country artists can, McKenna captures the banality of every day, small town life with such intimacy and pain. Many of her songs read like your deepest, darkest thoughts or diary entries about failure, doubt and insecurity. “Wreck You” and “Halfway Home” take an unflattering look at the demise of a relationship, and “Giving Up on Your Hometown” explores the way things change, despite us wanting them to stay the same forever. McKenna doesn’t view this hometown as a place she needs to leave for bigger or better things. Instead, she hits on that oddball appreciation for what gets left behind.

Cobb keeps things simple, making us feel like we’re listening to McKenna from right next to her.  There is a subtle, seventies groove to a few songs, including “We Were Cool”, a song about youth and rebellion in the simpler, pre-internet age. “Old Men, Young Women” has that similar sound as it takes a scathing look at society’s double standards. “Old men/Young women/Only work in the beginning,” she sings.

McKenna can craft a chorus that will pierce right through your heart and stick with you, but that never feels sappy or trite. The imperfections in her singing voice are so gorgeous and so full of the life she’s lived, you feel like you know her.

 

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