Southern swaggering and edgy country singer-songwriter RaeLynn has today released her sophomore album – Baytown. Stream the record here.
RaeLynn’s path in Nashville has not been easy or linear – since her stint on The Voice back in 2012, she has had record deals with Warner Music for her debut record Wild Horse and Republic Nashville, before ending up in her new label home Round Here Records for the release of her new record Baytown out everywhere today. During that time, RaeLynn has worked hard to carve out her path in the genre that sits somewhere outside the current Nashville landscape – it seems fitting then that she has ended up in the label home of country outliers Florida Georgia Line, who’s sound has always been the subject of debate and criticism as much as praise. From that base, RaeLynn seems to have unleashed the full force of the sound that she was always meant to create and that we only saw glimpses of on Wild Horse.
Baytown brims with joy in every note. So on opening track, ‘Keep Up,’ RaeLynn celebrates being a country girl. ‘Country boys sure know how to have fun / But let me show you how a country girl gets it done y’all.’ It’s a swaggering, funky and fun track that feels original as hell, but above all it is clear that RaeLynn is creating the exact music she wants to create and is revelling in the joy of that moment. This Texan larger-than-life persona is not abandoned after the final track but is carried through in the rest of the album’s upbeat tracks, nowhere more so than on ‘Judgin’ To Jesus.’ In this last, RaeLynn unleashes a powerful middle finger to the trolls and critics, in a track about acceptance. ‘If you keep a bible by your cigarettes / If you go to church in a cheetah dress… Don’t worry, honey round here / We leave the judging to Jesus.’ The production is simply on fire on this track, infused with a golden segment of gospel that elevates the track to something special. Later track ‘Bra Off’ offers another delightfully fun track, where RaeLynn joyfully dances out the toxins of a break-up. ‘I should be crying grieving some kind of loss / But it’s like taking this / Pink and Lacey / Suffocating Bra off.‘ It’s the ultimate girl power anthem for anyone going through a hard time and is anthemic in feel, as is final upbeat track ‘Rowdy’ – a honky-tonkin, boot-stomping track that is a fun, good-natured romp.
RaeLynn has aptly teamed up with some of country’s biggest male vocals on the project, amping up the Southern vibes further on the project. So, on ‘Get That All The Time’ she teams up with Mitchell Tenpenny, for a track that drips with Southern swagger as the pair trade off vocals with ease, complimenting each each other on the attention they must both get. It’s a track that feels immensely current, with superbly delivered production – a genre-defying single. Elsewhere RaeLynn teams up with her old The Voice mentor – Blake Shelton on ‘Why I Got A Truck’ for a bombastic, rough and ready single. Though the pair’s vocals meld perfectly, it seeks to dampen the gravity of Baytown, particularly given its sequencing right after ‘She Chose Me.’
There are moments of real humble country music on the record, like ‘Small Town Prayer’ that show the heart of RaeLynn, celebrating small town and quiet lives. ‘And it all sounds simple coming off our lips / ’cause we’re so little and He’s so big / Can’t find it in the bible, but Lord I swear / Nothing hits heaven like a small-town prayer.’ The vocals on this track are unparalleled, brimming with charm and she somehow manages to breathe fresh air into this somewhat over-done trope in country music. Indeed, she returns to the theme on ‘Only in a Small Town’ that moves with a dripping, easy swagger as RaeLynn sings about the unique qualities of a small town, with a joking ease only able to be delivered by those who know small-town life inside and out. ‘Only in a small town / Does your ex-boyfriend get locked up / And knock up your best girl friend.’ It’s a joyful, triumphantly ‘red neck’ track that again manages to fall just outside of cliche territory.
Still RaeLynn can bring the tempo down a notch. Indeed, the result is flawless when she does. ‘Still Smoking’ is a quietly swaggering track about long-lasting passion. ‘Yeah, y’all let me tell ya ’bout a summer fling / That turned to a flame / That’s gonna last forever.’ There is a quiet intensity to the energy generated by this track. ‘Neon Cowgirl’ offers a more mature direction to her music as RaeLynn offers older sisterly advice. ‘Hey, neon cowgirl / I’ve been there too / I’ve been on that bar stool / I’ve been in those boots / More times than I can count, girl / And it don’t end well / It’s fun for a while / But it’s a dead-end trail.’ More than this though, her tender and thoughtfully written ballads dive into interesting topics that are hugely palatable, where RaeLynn does not hide her authenticity under bombastic production. ‘Fake Girl Town’ ‘Ain’t it funny how girls in their twenties / Still go to the bathroom just talk some shit / And come right back and snap a pic with me / Yeah, I’m over it.’ It’s a raw and real track, showcased by the more stripped back production that tells the story of a yearning for ‘real girls.’ It’s a brave track lyrically which makes it all the more engaging. Elsewhere, ‘Me About Me’ is one of the standouts from the record, a gorgeously engaging track about wanting more from a relationship – attention to be paid. ‘Always waiting for a / “Hey, babe how was your day” / After you laid your day on me / When I found out that’s not gonna happen / That’s when I knew we weren’t meant to be.’ The track gives you a sense of RaeLynn’s heart, which makes it immensely engaging and charming, stripping the production back to let her vocal soar. Most raw and real is the stunning story song, ‘She Chose Me,’ a story about her mother choosing to give birth to her, after her conception in a motel with a man not her husband. ‘If it went the other way, nobody would have blamed her / Think of all the small town town talk it would have saved her… But she chose me.’ It’s an almost painfully raw and honest track and makes it an easy stand-out on Baytown, relatable in its specificity and real in its honesty, a beautifully done story song. The final track then is as heart-wrenching as they come – a beautiful accompanying moment to ‘She Chose Me’ – a song for her newly-born daughter, ‘Made For Me To Love,’ as she sings about her maternal love even before she was born.
Under the mentorship and guidance of her new label home, RaeLynn has unleashed the full force of the sound that she was always meant to create. Baytown feels like a no holds barred view into what she is about as an artist both sonically and lyrically. More than anything else, the record is immensely ‘fun’ – a record that channels the vibrance of her live set interspersed with tracks of great depth and honesty. Baytown is a unique project that feels like a wholly charming outlier on the country scene, a place that many artists feel afraid to go right now. It is a delight that beckons in a new, wholly authentic era of her music, one couched in heavy, current production but retaining her Texan heart.
