Bell Bottom Country＜Colored Vinyl＞

Having had a breakthrough hit in 2021 with Sayin What Im 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: its deliberately, defiantly retro, dredging up images of the 1970s, an era when country singers werent 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. Its a territory previously explored by the likes of Eric Church and Miranda Lambert, a pair of singers produced by Jay Joyce, who also helms Bell Bottom Country. Joyces sinewy yet nimble production is filled with muscle and color, its shifting sounds emphasizing how Wilson doesnt 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 "Whats 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 Bell Bottom Country a compelling listen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine