If It Wasn't For You

Caylee Hammacks skill is how she undercuts bravado with humility, a quality thats evident throughout her 2020 debut album If It Wasnt for You. Splashy and slick on the surface, the kind of contemporary country album designed to sneak its way onto genre-ambivalent playlists, If It Wasnt for You cycles through heartbreak, love, and swagger in its 13 tracks. Hammack is drawn to time-honored country tropes -- the titular Redhead is fiery and defiant, and shes drawn to small towns and kin -- but her approach is quintessentially modern, finding a sweet spot between Miranda Lamberts flintiness and Maren Morris omnivorous genre-hopping. Much of the pleasure of the album lies in hearing Hammack effortlessly slide between elastic reggae beats, barebone acoustic numbers, disco-fied honky tonk, and breezy pop; no matter the surroundings, she sounds like herself, a singer who relies equally on passion and playfulness. If It Wasnt for You dazzles with its style and color, so much so that it takes a moment to realize that the hooks dont always sink in fully. When the tunes do catch hold, its just as likely to be for a cornball reason (the absurd Preciatcha) as it is for craft (Family Tree), a tendency that does mean If It Wasnt for You is a bit uneven underneath its confident veneer. Nevertheless, there are enough pleasures on that surface to make this worth a listen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine