ALBUM REVIEW: Girl To Girl – Tenille Arts

After hitting the number one spot this year with her track, ‘Somebody Like That’ Tenille Arts has now released her new album – Girl to Girl – including the major hit and current single ‘Back Then, Right Now.’ Listen to the record here and our review below.

Tenille Arts seems to have been hitting on something truly magical over the past year – her single ‘Somebody Like That’ earned her her first number one and she was nominated for 2021 ACM’s New female artist. Across the course of 13 tracks, Arts charts a letter to her teenage self and teens everywhere. In her own words, ‘I found myself reflecting back on my teenage years and writing songs I wish I had back then… songs about the things I was going through and the things I had yet to experience… Like a letter to myself.. Girl to Girl.’ If you listen to the record, from top to bottom then what you get is a slowly deeper reflection on that journey, starting from her current state on ‘Back Then Right Now’ to her earliest memories on ‘Growing Old Young.’ It’s a tender letter to her younger self, rife with memories of teenage angst found on Olivia Rodrigo’s debut record. It’s wonderfully produced and polished in its delivery and will no doubt earn Arts a continued legion of teenage fans, who would do well to take heed of the advice that she lays out throughout Girl to Girl. 

The record opens with ‘Back Then, Right Now’ – Arts current radio single. It’s a nostalgic look back on small-town life, a wish to take a pause amidst the madness of her current success. ‘I could use a little cold can, full moon / I could sing a little map dot, hallelujah / I could use a little back to my roots / That’s the truth / I could really use a little down home slowdown / A little bit of look back on how / The whole wide world was one small town / I could use a little back then right now.’  It was an obvious choice for a radio single – a big and brash, commercial-ready anthem built for live performance. A more muted, sweeter version of the track is offered on ‘Growing Old Young’ and on ‘Sweet Sixteen’ where Arts sings about her nostalgia for her teenage years. ‘Wasn’t that sweet sixteen? / Just candles and a never-broke heart / First miles on a hand-me-down car / Tryna cross those county lines / Summer nights, shotgun seats.’ It’s an idea she also returns to on ‘One Bedroom Apartment’ where she sings about the joy of humble roots and the little things in life. ‘But you’ll be surprised at the memories you can fit / In this one bedroom apartment.’ It’s a pensive look at how a ‘mansion in a millionaire’s market’ is unable to bring real joy.

Arts is at her best when she is doling out advice, so on following track ‘That’s My Friend You’re Talking About,’ she sings about a wish for her friend to love herself. ‘That’s my friend you’re talkin’ about / The one in the mirror you’re looking at now / Girl, you should borrow my view / So you see what I see in you / I don’t like the way you put yourself down / ‘Cause that’s my friend you’re talkin’ about, yeah.’ It’s tenderly delivered, giving it an immense charm and is where she seems to have reached her lyrical sweet spot. So on, ‘High School Sweetheart’  – a track reminiscent of the Fearless era – Arts sings to a teenage broken heart that it’ll be ok. ‘He broke your high-school sweetheart / And it feels like your life’s over before it starts / You think your whole world revolves in those hallways / But it won’t always / You’ll just have to trust me / One day it’ll just be high-school sweetheart (Sweetheart).’ It’s a delightfully, intoxicating track that is immensely comforting – a kind and loving letter of advice to her younger self and teens everywhere. 

This is not to say that her empowered side doesn’t come out in a sassier way elsewhere on the record. So, ‘Girl to Girl’ is a younger version of Carly Pearce’s ‘Next Girl’ – a warning to the next girl about the red flags that she may be blind to. ‘From stealing your heart, to wreckin’ your world / That boy only knows how to go / Girl to girl.’ Lyrically, the track is a delight – part advice, part sassy, humorously venomous in an outcry to the guy who treated her wrong. ‘Mama’s Boy’ is an easy grooving, lyrics-dripping melody, a track about avoiding the bad boy. ‘I’ve seen enough to know your love / Ain’t worth another Polaroid / So, I’m takin’ my heart back / Before you break mine and my mama’s, boy.’ Although a damnation of the bad boy who attempted to break her heart, the production lifts the track to make it a charming vindication instead. Continuing that idea, ‘Heartbreak Regulars’ is a beat-infused vibing track about the universal experience of heartbreak and ‘Life Goes Like That’ charts the unexpected journey of life. ‘‘Cause life goes like that / You try not to grow up / You fall in and out of love / Nah, it ain’t always gonna look like what you dreamed of.’ It’s one of the catchier melodies on the record and has all the indications of a future radio single, with a juicier guitar accompaniment, as is ‘Give It To Me Straight’  – another radio-friendly single, where Arts sings to a lover about giving her the hard truth so that she can move on. ‘Give it to me straight / You ain’t gotta waste / No time putting honey in the Jack D whiskey / Either way it’s gonna burn when it hits me / If my hearts gonna break / Baby, there ain’t / No sugar on a rim or a lime twist to make this / Go down easy.’ Produced by Dave Pittenger, the track is commercially-friendly, although sonically it doesn’t push boundaries for Arts. 

Elsewhere, Tenille Arts celebrates real love and joy on the delightfully country infused, ‘Break-Up Songs’ a delicious ballad with new artist Callista Clark. ‘I’m breaking up with breakup songs / Boy, ever since you came along / The sound of a steel guitar don’t break my heart like it used to.’ The track is brought to life with the delicate touches of pedal steel. It’s little surprise that the track was produced by Nathan Chapman, who most famously worked with Taylor Swift in her early days, as it contains all the hallmarks of the Fearless record. The other collaboration on the record was a similarly shrewd choice. On, ‘Over You Is You’ she joins forces with Matt Stell – another of the freshest voices in country music right now, layering their vocals over each other in tides, in a track documenting the inability to move on. ‘When / Over you is your baby come over, I need you / I miss my sheets on your body / Over you is your don’t stop kiss / When it hits and it gets me like nobody’s got me.’ The swirling and ebbing production mimics the ability of heartbreak to sucker you back in and it’s powerfully enacted. 

Girl to Girl is a delightfully charming album that will no doubt elevate Arts’ career, earning her a growing legion of teenage fans. Sonically, there is not a huge amount of variety, but it is the charm and tenderness with which she crafts her letter to her younger self that gives this record so much staying power.