March in Review: Beyoncé, Waxahatchee, Adrianne Lenker and more
Thoughts on the most significant releases of March 2024
In February, I wrote that “after a particularly slow year for music in 2023, artists wasted no time in making 2024 a jam-packed year for major releases”. March was no different, beginning with releases from Faye Webster and righteous punk-rockers Mannequin Pussy.
Those two artists, while releasing new albums on the same day, could not have created more different LPs if they’d tried. Mannequin Pussy’s I Got Heaven offers a jolt of feminist fury and punk urgency; from the riot-grrrl-meets-Black-Flag “OK? OK! OK? OK!” and Hole-esque masterpiece “I Got Heaven” to power pop-inspired cuts like “Sometimes” and “Nothing Like”. The versatility of the album necessarily gives it a feeling of disjointedness, as the band jump between styles and sounds at breakneck speed. But there’s no doubting that this is an essential album from one of the most talented and incisive bands working at the moment.
Faye Webster, by contrast, kept things chill on her newest LP, Underdressed at the Symphony. It’s her least urgent, most unhurried record to date, which is quite something given the pace of her previous works. There are a number of highlights, particularly in the album’s first half; including the loud-quiet “But Not Kiss”, which feels like it was pulled off the cutting room floor of the I Know I’m Funny Haha sessions, and the surprise psychedelic alt-country, Lil Yachty collab “Lego Ring”. Elsewhere, however, Symphony feels like a purposeful retreat, as Webster offers up reserved lyrics and hides behind the tasteful sound of her band. By the time we reach “Feeling Good Today” - a highly autotuned 1.30 minute single, filled with small, unevocative mundanities - it feels as though we’re listening to a highly talented artist spinning her wheels in the mud.
Unfortunately, the same thing feels true for Kacey Musgraves’ new LP Deeper Well. Having previously tried with 2021’s Star-Crossed to recreate the psychedelic country-pop charm of her magnum opus Golden Hour, now she is returning to more well-trodden terrain. The folk-pop of Deeper Well seems to be aiming for the timelessness of Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball, but instead it’s identity remains in lurk. It’s too peppy to be a good folk album and too drab to deliver any moments of pop excellence - and the more dour moments shine an unfortunately bright spotlight on Musgrave’s shortcomings as a lyricist. Compared to the two pre-release singles - the dull title-track, and the Anna-Nalick-did-it-better “Too Good To Be True” - Deeper Well does offer some pleasant surprises. “Anime Eyes” sees Musgraves admirably leaving her comfort zone, while “The Architect” replicates the wide-eyed innocence and charm of Golden Hour. But taken as a whole, Deeper Well remains disappointing and devoid of any instantly memorable moments. Golden Hour now feels less and less like the start of an exciting new era in Musgraves’ career (and country music more widely) and more like a flash-in-the-pan.
Thankfully, the same can’t be said of Waxahatchee, who followed up career high-point St. Cloud with an album that is every bit as good (and may even be better!). Continuing the rootsy direction of her last solo LP while incorporating elements of the rollicking indie of her early work (thanks in large part to contributions by MJ Lenderman), Waxahatchee has made an album that feels like the culmination of her entire career thus far. As I wrote in my review of the album for Paste, “the enduring message [of Tigers Blood] is that there’s no tribulation that can’t be overcome with unwavering honesty and durable companionship—a hard-won and time-worn truth that also happens to translate into brilliant music.”
Another excellent singer-songwriter album we were treated to on the same day as Tigers Blood was Adrianne Lenker’s Bright Future. Like Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, Lenker also feels like an artist who just keeps getting better and better with time, and with Bright Future, she has created some of her most potent music to date. Opener “Real House” is a devastating bildungsroman, whose sparse nature recalls the music of Phil Elverum, documenting various fractures to childhood innocence. “Fool” offers a bouncy, largely-uplifting reprise from the heaviness, although it still packs an emotional gut punch in it’s final leg, while “Sadness As a Gift” already feels like the stuff of legend; a folk classic for the ages. Of the deep cuts, “Donut Seam” is a highlight, a plea to accept ephemeral moments of beauty anchored around the devastating refrain “The whole world is dying / Don’t it seem like a good time for swimming / Before all the water disappears”.
Bright Future, while almost universally well received, seems to have split audiences in two halves; those who believe that Lenker is at her apex here, as a soloist, and those who still hold a preference for her work as part of Big Thief. I still remain firmly in the latter camp - which is why I ended up wishing for a more arresting sound on “Candleflame”, and found the solo rendition of “Vampire Empire” to pale in comparison to the full band’s version. That said, I don’t know how you could listen to Bright Future and not leave with the takeaway that Lenker is one of our greatest living songwriters.
Lenker and Waxahatchee understandably soaked up most of the discussion around new singer-songwriter albums on the day they were released. But it would be a mistake to overlook another strong album released at the same time - Bite Down by Rosali (not to be confused with Rosalia). A tasteful rock and Americana infused album, Bite Down manages to be mature without boring, tasteful without being sterile. Exquisitely mixed, Bite Down interrogates knotty feelings and in-between states, alternating between time-worn wisdom and acknowledging that some things remain forever unknowable. Highlights include: “Bite Down”, “Hopeless”, “My Kind” and “Hills on Fire”.
Also released on the very busy day of March 22nd was Sierra Ferrell’s Trail of Flowers. Ferrell has gone from strength to strength in recent years. As recently as 2019, she was a busker who would go on to broke through via Youtube virality. Now, she has 2.5 million monthly Spotify listeners, an extensive North American tour schedule this Summer, and guest features on songs with Zach Bryan and Margo Price. On Trail of Flowers, she continues serving as a cross-generational troubadour, weaving together modern folk, mid-century country, jazz and bluegrass. As I wrote in my review of the LP for Paste, it’s an ambitious task that she achieves more often than not, especially on the album’s back-half, which “provides the most consistent showcase of Ferrell’s idiosyncrasies and outsized personality”.
Another album I reviewed in March was The Staves’ All Now. It’s the sister act’s first as a duo and second with producer John Congleton. Staying firmly in the vein of their previous outing, 2021’s Good Woman, All Now offers few major surprises. As I wrote for No Depression, “for an album with a thematic focus on the ephemeral joys of the present, it’s easy to wish for something that sounded a little wilder, a little more untamed”. However, there are some real highlights - including the mission-statement title track and the lo-fi “The Important One”. The biggest highlight though is “After School”, imbued with classic piano-rock swagger, it proves to be one of the band’s greatest achievements yet.
The last album I have to mention is Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter - the second instalment in her Renaissance series. This is also the second time I’ve attempted to write about the album at length - *this* being the first - and I still struggle to articulate my thoughts about it coherently. It’s often brilliant, it’s also messy and bloated and confounding at times. I guess an album that attempts to interrogate the past, present and future of the country genre could never be anything else.
What I’m looking forward to in April:
Only God Was Above Us by Vampire Weekend (out now!)
This Could Be Texas by English Teacher (out April 12)
I’m Doing It Again Baby! by Girl in Red (out April 12)
Don’t Forget Me by Maggie Rogers (out April 12, my review)
Silence is Loud by Nia Archives (out April 12)
The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift (out April 19)
Hovvdy by Hovvdy (out April 26)
Light Verse by Iron & Wine (out April 26)
All Born Screaming by St. Vincent (out April 26)