FREE TOTE BAG WITH ALBUM PURCHASE!
It’s country, but not Country - It’s indie, but not Indie - It’s DIY and rough around the edges - It’s immaculately composed - On her 6th record, Katie Crutchfield has made the raucous indie-country album we’ve been dreaming of.
Her 2012 debut ‘American Weekend’ held echoes of the experimental folk-pop singer Norma Tanega but felt more akin to Papa M or Bill Callahan. From there, up to 2020’s ‘Saint Cloud’, it felt like Crutchfeld had sacrificed the looseness of her earlier works in favour of a more polished sound. There was a risk that this continued sanding of the edges would dull the ferocious energy of her lyrics.
But then we heard the new singles. ‘Right Back To It’, with MJ Lenderman, came first. Emotive but not cloying. Catchy but complex. Meandering but focused. Then ‘Bored’. Raucous and indelibly fun. Petulant. Considered. By the time the album arrived, we were optimistic but nothing quite prepared us for how deep this record would sink its lengthy canine teeth into us.
And ‘Tigers Blood’ has stayed on repeat ever since. It’s both reassuringly familiar and fascinatingly new. It’s a sound that’s uniquely hers but could have emerged decades ago. You know the feeling when you eventually stick on a record your friend’s been begging you to check out for years? That. But it completely lives up to their rave reviews. A comfortable, complex album that demands myriad revisits.
