Vacation season is well and truly rocking, but Nashville musicians just keep on releasing records you’ll want to know better. The Scene’s music writers have nine new recommendations for you, so add ’em to your streaming queue or pick them up from your favorite record store. Some of our picks are also available to buy directly from the artists on Bandcamp. However, the Bandcamp Friday promotion — in which the platform waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period — is still on a summer break, and will return Sept. 6.
Album art: Daisha McBride, 'People Like Me'
Daisha McBride, People Like Me (The Rap Girl)
Going back to her days freestyling in her dorm at MTSU, Daisha McBride has never been anything but confident on the mic. But with every release it feels like she’s reaching a deeper level of comfort in her skin and as the star of the show. There’s a special kind of swagger to “Ms. Make It Happen,” the opener of her new EP People Like Me, in which she’s taking stock of where she’s at, rapping: “I’m a little cocky, baby, and my exes would agree / It’s a compliment to know they’re still checking up on me.” It takes guts to be as direct as she is about feeling burnt out on “All Is Well,” and to take charge of being open about communication with her partner the way she does on the superb slow jam “Tell Me What U Want.” STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find People Like Me on your favorite streaming service and follow McBride on Instagram for updates.
Album art: Cage the Elephant, 'Neon Pill'
Cage the Elephant, Neon Pill (110 Entertainment/RCA)
If you were hoping Neon Pill would be a game-changer for Kentucky-bred alt-rockers Cage the Elephant, you might be disappointed in the lack of instrumental experimentation or wild new beats on their first new album in five years. But you might also ask yourself: Does the game need changing? The LP is a beautiful culmination of the work they started a decade ago, with lyrics about things you regret and things you’re trying to work on, inspired by the turmoil in singer Matt Shultz’s personal life. There’s a rawness here about despair, desire and being afraid of losing yourself, layered over groovy guitar riffs with bluesy undertones — like the musical baby of Billie Eilish and Tame Impala, raised on Modest Mouse’s discography. JAYME FOLTZ
Find Neon Pill at your favorite record store, on your favorite streaming service or via Cage the Elephant's website, and follow the band on Instagram for more.
Kaitlin Butts, Roadrunner (Kaitlin Butts/Soundly)
One of the year’s coolest and most ambitious country albums comes from ramblin’ red dirt singer-songwriter Kaitlin Butts. Roadrunner! dusts off the lore of famed musical Oklahoma! for a country-roots retelling of the story. With inspiration that straddles real-world hurt and larger-than-life theatrics, Butts shines on this expansive 17-track release, which includes the sharp-tongued single “Hunt You Down,” fiery country-rocker “If I Can’t Have You,” old-school campfire folk tune “Like I Should” and Vince Gill collaboration “Come Rest Your Head (On My Pillow).” I can’t wait to catch her headline date in November at Exit/In, sure to have country fans buzzing for weeks afterward. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
Find Roadrunner at your favorite record store, on your favorite streaming service or via Butts' website, and follow her on Instagram for updates.
Austin Cody, Only More (self-released)
For a brief time in the Aughts, Austin Rick was an aspiring country singer who performed as Austin Cody. In a 2017 interview with the Scene, he shared allegations of sexual harassment and assault against powerful public relations executive Kirt Webster, whom he said promised “fireworks” in Rick’s career if he accepted Webster’s advances. Rick did not, and his music career ended practically before it began; traumatized by his experience, he has no interest in rekindling it. Recently, however, he recovered the masters to three songs he recorded at the time and released them on streaming services as the Only More EP. It’s a competent set of mainstream country bookended by two strong ballads that showcase the singer’s potential. In an email, he explains it’s important to release the music to give context to a forthcoming book and other possible projects he hopes will shine a light on sexual misconduct in the Nashville music business. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find Only More on your favorite streaming service and follow Rick's Facebook page for updates.
Album art: Yelawolf, 'War Story'
Yelawolf, War Story (Slumerican)
A sprawling hour-and-a-half double LP, War Story delivers more narrative and harmonic throughput than expected from such a long-ass track list. A deep dive into intoxication’s darkest depths and a trunk-rattling journey through the dirtiest corners of the Dirty South, it’s broken into two song sets, Michael Wayne and Trunk Muzik 4Ever. It paints a complex picture of characters operating in the twilight zones between cultures, scenes and social and economic strata, all with a buzz that would destroy a normal person. SEAN L. MALONEY
Find War Story at your favorite record store, on your favorite streaming service or via Yelawolf's website, and follow him on Instagram for updates.
Album art: Dex Green, 'Imaginary War'
Dex Green, Imaginary War (Three Sirens)
Dex Green’s debut album is a delightful surprise. Anyone familiar with his extensive work as a producer probably would expect Green to make a radio-friendly, guitar-driven modern rock or roots-rock record. But Imaginary War is not that at all; outside electric bass, there’s not a single guitar on the album. Instead, Green has gone in a groovy, atmospheric, keyboard-heavy, psychedelic-soul direction. And with the exception of background vocals by Laura Mayo on three songs, he wrote, arranged, played and sang all the parts. The result is the perfect soundtrack for a lazy, dreamy summer day. DARYL SANDERS
Find Imaginary War on your favorite streaming service and follow Green on Instagram for updates.
OmenBringer, Thicc Darkness (Cauldron House)
On OmenBringer’s debut album Thicc Darkness, Molly Kent joins the legion of occult heavy metal vocalists to follow the lead of Coven’s Jinx Dawson. Kent’s compelling musical incantations range from the doom metal sledgehammer “Tungs” to the stonerific slow-burner “Stake.” As the album title implies, Kent and bandmates Cory Cline (bass, lead guitar), Spookie Rollings (rhythm guitar) and Tyler Boydstun (drums) earnestly explore the spiritual and sensual elements of rock ’n’ roll lore. They bring a delightful sense of levity, though; “B.T.G.G.F.,” an ode to a particularly pulchritudinous Bauhaus fan, stands for exactly what you’d hope it stands for. ADDIE MOORE
Noel McKay, You Only Live Always (McKay)
Noel McKay extends the tropes favored by Texas-to-Tennessee songwriters like Guy Clark into science-fiction territory on You Only Live Always. McKay says he wrote the album’s opening track “53” after delving into molecular biology. With help from Nashville session players like keyboardist Catherine Marx and strings master Billy Contreras, McKay makes the album’s genre experiments his own. “Interstellar Rescue Service” evokes the melodicism of songwriting forebears like Jim Webb, J.J. Cale and Clark himself, and situates the singer-songwriter in a thankless job that takes him into deep space. You Only Live sports a cover of Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman to Me,” and it works. McKay doesn’t convince me it’s a good song, but his rendition puts Joel’s pop tune into an eclectic tradition of songwriting that might not exist yet. EDD HURT
Find You Only Live Always at your favorite record store, on your favorite streaming service or via this handy link, and follow McKay on Instagram for updates.
Sheryl Crow, Evolution (Green Barn/Big Machine)
A fitting victory lap to her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and a not-so-subtle reminder of her place amongst the Pantheon of Tone Gods, Evolution finds Sheryl Crow cranking out AM Gold for an algorithm-based world. Laidback and groovy, sunny and shimmering, Crow’s 12th studio album finds the veteran artist clearly enjoying the process and relishing the work. The results are pure summer-vacay wake-and-bake vibes. As a low-stakes listen, it satisfies like a cold açai bowl on a scorching hot morning, but take a closer listen for nuggets of wisdom in songs like “Do It Again,” whose hook goes, “All I know / Is wherever I go, there I am / All I know / Is I’m doing the best that I can.” SEAN L. MALONEY
Find Evolution at your favorite record store or on your favorite streaming service, and follow Crow on Instagram for updates.
