Kelsea Ballerini
SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Black River Entertainment
23/09/22
Ballerini’s fourth studio album is her best to date. She once again takes her pop songwriting sensibilities and blends them perfectly with her country roots and the end product is an album littered with catchy melodies and well crafted lyrics.
The album begins with the title track, the chorus, riddled with hooks will stay with you for far longer than the 2 minutes 59 seconds that the song plays for. ‘If You Go Down (I’m Going Down Too)’ is a simple concept but Ballerina injects humour into the lyrics and the country instrumentation helps to set the scene and the feel of the song. The production is slick and perfectly complements Ballerini’s style throughout the record as it adapts from the big polished pop leaning tracks to the stripped back country ballads.
‘Love Is A Cowboy’ boasts strong lyrics ‘It makes your heart feel like wild horses in your chest/Trying to catch, it’s like tryna tame a wild, wild west/And when I’m with him, it’s like ropin’ the wind/Love is a cowboy’. She also shows off her ability to collaborate as she teams up with Kelly Clarkson and Carly Pearce to form a sisterhood on the song ‘You’re Drunk, Go Home’ – a fun, upbeat number that has a lot of sass in it.
Overall it is hard to find fault with ‘SUBJECT TO CHANGE’ as it showcases Ballerina as an all round singer, songwriter and entertainer. It’s a strong contender for album of the year.
