What a difference a year makes. Almost exactly a year to the day of her self-titled sophomore album, Carly Pearce is back with a new EP ‘29’, released Friday. While the former took us through the courtship and eventual marriage to fellow country singer Michael Ray, ‘29’ takes us through the pain of her 2020 divorce. Pearce has always been an honest and vulnerable songwriter, but she hit new heights with this collection. Even the worst song on this record is better than some artists’ best.
Let’s start with the only song that is subpar, by Carly Pearce standards, which is ‘Day One’. This is not a bad song by any means, just slightly underwhelming. The lyrics serve as a timeline of her post-divorce healing and basically says that if she can make it through the first day she will be fine eventually. I think the placement of this song in the track list, at the very end, was a misguided decision. Other songs could’ve brought more closure, but it felt like this one left me unfulfilled. It pretty much stayed on the same level melodically, with no rise and fall. I get the purpose of the song, but I didn’t feel the emotion as much as I wanted.
If you’ve followed Stars and Guitars over the last year, you know how much we love ‘Next Girl’, ‘Show Me Around’ and ‘Should’ve Known Better’, all of which are included on ‘29’. But easily the most unexpected pleasure on this collection is ‘Liability’. So as to not give away the twist in the lyrics, she titled it liability instead of lie ability. For some reason while I was grooving along to this song, I felt a sense of guilt for enjoying it so much. There is no shortage of cheating songs in country music, but few artists have such a well-known muse like Pearce has with Ray. I have no doubt that Ray and Pearce still share mutual fans, and these songs transform us into children that have to decide which parent they would rather live with. Emotion is the heart of a great country song, and ‘Liability’ has me feeling several different emotions at once.
Carly Pearce has yet again hit it out of the park with ‘29’. If you’re going through a breakup or have recently lost someone close to you, have a box of tissues on hand before sitting down to listen. To hear ‘29’ in its entirety, click here. After you’ve listened, come back and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
