Chemtrails Over The Country Club
Lana Del Rey

I assume this is something of a diversity pick - the curator wanted something from 2021, so they picked something. Now, the obvious solution is - if there aren't any good CDs from 2021, then don't pick any. My personal opinion is that no strong rock CDs have been released since 2019 (I'm writing this in 2022) but I'm not monitoring every genre. Let's start with Lana's voice. It's extremely weak. If you're an apologist you could say breathy, thin, range-bound and timid is the aesthetic she's going for. I'm not - compare her vocals with Grace Potter or (even closer) Emily Haines from Metric. Haines can do Lana's style better than she can but then can also open up and just belt it, and I think she probably has more range on the high end too (low end is a foregone conclusion). I don't know if Lana can't really sing, but the fact of the matter is that on this CD, she doesn't. She starts to open it up a bit on "Let Me Love You Like a Woman" and "Wild at Heart" but doesn't keep it up. Then there's the pace. This CD is extremely slow and down-beat, and never gets above about a 3-out-of-10 on the excitement scale. The easiest way to put together a good pop CD is to have a great lead singer. Failing that, be fast, fun, and loud. If you don't do either of those things, you're in a really tough position - the last recourse is to have genius composition and production. This CD ain't it. It's pretty basic singer-songwriter stuff. Half the songs sound like demos. Easily the most sophisticated composition is the Joni Mitchell cover (also probably the best song overall), and that adds basically nothing on the production side relative to Mitchell's version, it's pretty much a by-the-books cover.

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