ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Many members of my family can attest when I was growing up, I was a rather stubborn child. It’s a trait I definitely inherited from my late dad, and that has helped me grow into a hard-headed woman when it comes to particular topics.
Singer Margo Price recently released her newest album, “Hard Headed Woman,” and while I was listening to it while working on some other work recently, there were multiple times where I couldn’t help but think ‘I feel SEEN right now!” Ultimately, the album ended up being a very smart click.
To start off, the vocals are wonderful. Price does a great job vocally with both the fun/party songs as well as the slower and more serious/sultry songs featured on the album – the fun/party songs are unabashedly so, and the slower songs REALLY set a mood. The harmonies especially on the opening/prologue song are an absolute chef’s kiss, and Price definitely seemed to want to tell a story with each song. Price is also able to blend well with her duet partners, Jesse Welles (who I feel could have been featured more prominently given how the album goes out of its way to let people know he’s featured) and Tyler Childers, later in the album, and the end result works so, so well. I really enjoyed how there was that variety between fast/fun and slower songs – the past couple albums I’ve reviewed haven’t featured as much variety as I would have liked, so it was great having that variety this time around. I feel like Price just had an overall great and fun time recording this album, and it really shows. Overall, the vocals are VERY well done on each song of the album.
With the instrumentals, the backing band does an amazing job and also really helps set the mood and tone for the album. My absolute favorite song in terms of the instrumentals was “Keep A Picture” because it feels and sounds just so nostalgic, and it’s almost reminiscent of something one would hear in a Western movie or something similar. I also really enjoyed how the instrumentals went for more of that 1990s country feel – that’s the music I grew up listening to for the most part, and it was great hearing that sound again given how a lot of modern country is almost more pop-sounding. The instrumentals are VERY complementary of Price’s vocals and do their part in helping Price tell a story with each song on the album, and the end result is dazzling. The songs “Close To You” and “Nowhere Is Where” are particularly sultry thanks to the instrumentals, and the end result is amazing. Like the vocals, the instrumentals are overall very well done throughout the entire album.
I also have to give credit to Price’s songwriting skills, which come into play for the majority of the songs on the album. Price is an absolutely wonderful songwriter, and I loved how each song’s lyrics had a deeper meaning if you listen hard enough. One of my favorite songs on the album in terms of lyrics was “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down,” which is just so empowering and all about how you should be unashamedly, unabashedly yourself and not let anyone dim your power or light – I feel like that message is especially important in modern times given recent events throughout the country. Another lyrically strong song for me was “Keep A Picture,” which is all about reflecting on the good times (like a snapshot) of what ultimately ended up being a toxic relationship and probably very relatable to a lot of people. Another lyrically strong song I have to give credit to is “Don’t Wake Me Up” because while it sounds relatively upbeat, I actually found it slightly depressing because it’s about someone who would rather live in their heads and in their own dream world because the real world’s gone down the toilet. All of the songs feature a lot of raw, no-BS honesty in the lyrics, and I was absolutely in love with all of it. Overall, there was a lot of great lyric work done with every song on this album.
And while this might seem like a bit of an outlier, I also really liked the overall pace of the album – each song is the perfect length of time, and the album as a whole came in at a great length at a little more than 40 minutes. Overall, that was also very well done.
Overall, I very much enjoyed Margo Price’s “Hard Headed Woman” album (which seemed to be named for me) and I would give it a solid “A” grade. Price’s vocals are outstanding and she’s absolutely able to make the most out of the songs that are meant to be more fun and the ones meant to be slower and more sultry, and the instrumentals from the backing band absolutely complement that. Every song also has great lyrics, so I also have to give credit to Price’s songwriting skills, because the songs absolutely rock. If you’re a fan of Price’s other music, or if you’re a fan of the more classic country sound, “Hard Headed Woman” is definitely a good album to cue up.
