Rolling Up The Welcome Mat＜限定盤/Clear Smoke Vinyl＞

Pointedly released on Valentines Day 2023, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat is a brisk EP that finds Kelsea Ballerini coming to terms with her recent divorce from Morgan Evans. The six songs here dont trace the arc of her brief marriage so much as her acceptance of its dissolution, concluding with the hopeful note that she will never leave herself behind again when she enters a romance. A close reading of the lyrics to Rolling Up the Welcome Mat reveals a number of intimate details of their union, along with a rolling series of self-insights. None of the music on Rolling Up the Welcome Mat conveys such a sense of intense reflection. With its easy tempos and smooth surfaces, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat offers clean, uncluttered comfort. Listening to it without paying a whit of attention to the words Ballerini is singing, itd be difficult to imagine that it was born from a place of pain, not pleasure. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine