LOMA VISTA
Recording in Hollywood with Sturgill Simpson in the producer’s chair, the Midwest farmer’s daughter tried her hand at a West Coast pop album for her third LP. Rather than country confessionals, then, here were 10 songs taking in Heartbreakers-esque new wave, gospel and prime Fleetwood Mac. Complete with a more oblique, lyrical voice from Price, the result was another step forward for a musician who respects tradition but has never been shackled by it.
49 GWENIFER RAYMOND
TOMPKINS SQUARE
A fearsome live performer, foregoing chat for instrumental acoustic guitar intensity, Gwenifer Raymond in 2020 made the album that gave recorded shape to her uncompromising approach. Grown in ambition, if not noticeably in length from her 2018 debut, Garth Mountain drew both on the rabbit skulls and damp moss of British folk horror, and also a compositional wisdom that broadened the horizon of her American Primitive twang.