COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS : LOOSE FUTURE

  1. Loose Future
  2. Older Now
  3. On The Line
  4. Satellite
  5. These Are The Good Old Days
  6. Thinkin' On You
  7. You Do What You Want
  8. Let Her Go
  9. Change My Mind
  10. Me & Jerry

Label : Fat Possum Records

Release Date : October 7, 2022

Length : 32:31

Review (AllMusic) : Elvis Costello once said he went through a period when he realized he was deliberately bringing chaos into his personal life because he wasn't sure if he could write without it. Given that two of Courtney Marie Andrews' best and most celebrated albums, 2016's Honest Life and 2020's Old Flowers, were written in the wake of painful romantic breakups and made the hurt and sense of loss real and vivid, it's tempting to wonder if similar thoughts crossed her mind, and if she ever contemplated getting involved with someone wrong for her just for the sake of inspiration. Andrews wisely avoided such foolishness while creating 2022's Loose Future, but since it was written at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, and social and political chaos was the order of the day, she had plenty of other things to make her feel uncertain. Uncomplicated happiness doesn't seem to come easy for Andrews, and Loose Future is a largely introspective effort where she often weighs the balances between what she wants in life and what she gets. Sometimes the numbers work out in her favor, as on "Good Old Days," where she finds a man who might actually be right for her ("Big pink moon through the cypress trees/Tells me he loves me and I want to believe") and the similarly themed "Me and Jerry." But the title cut is the sound of a woman still figuring out where her life is going, "Older Now" explicitly declares she's looking for some changes and is throwing her plans to the wind, and "On the Line" and "Satellite" are about relationships that sure don't seem to be headed in a good direction. However she's feeling, Andrews expresses herself with a plain-spoken honesty that's artful without sounding fussy or pretentious, and her voice is the perfect match, clear and sweet but never sugary, navigating the fine line between joy and disappointment with skill and intelligence. With help from producer Sam Evian, Andrews has given these songs life with arrangements that lend the tunes shape and color without getting in the way, and though Loose Future lacks a bit of the grand-scale drama of Honest Life and Old Flowers, it's full of well-crafted songs performed with the skill and passion they deserve, and it's another worthy album from a songwriter who only gets better as she matures.

Review (Pitchfork) : The promise of a new day lurks within the heart of Loose Future, the eighth album from Courtney Marie Andrews. It’s a switch of sound and aesthetic for Andrews, a singer-songwriter with an emo background—she toured with Jimmy Eat World at the outset of her career—who came to favor austere Americana over a series of albums for Fat Possum in the 2010s. Listen closely and faint echoes of folk can be discerned embedded within the cool, polished veneer of Loose Future. Andrews sculpts songs with care, her strummed guitar providing a pulse that’s felt as much as heard. Despite this sturdy foundation, the album is essentially the polar opposite of Old Flowers, a stark and sad record that rightfully earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Americana album in 2020. There, Andrews plumbed the depths of a painful breakup, offering a melancholy meditation on the fading of love. Here, the world opens up thanks to a new romance, a reawakening that gives the album a sense of possibility: What lies ahead may be uncertain yet it feels positive, even joyous. As she sings on “Older Now,” a shimmering piece of self-acceptance, “life is better without plans.” That embrace of the unknown would be enough to give Loose Future a sensibility distinct from Andrews’ other albums yet this thematic shift is eclipsed by her decision to expand her aural palette by working with Sam Evian. A producer who previously has helmed records by Big Thief and Cassandra Jenkins, Evian eases Andrews into a different sonic world, trading upon sounds from the peak of classic rock and new wave, the studio flair accentuating feelings instead of covering them. Echoes of country-rock float throughout Loose Future—a steel guitar lends “You Do What You Want” a plaintive note—yet it’s only an echo, one of many colors at play. Loose Future is painted in bright, sounding vivid even in its slowest moments, as when “Let Her Go” is graced with layers of vocal harmonies or when “Change My Mind” gets a lift from supple strings. While the album never is quite lively, there’s a perceptible pulse provided by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear, his backbeat giving shape and structure to the gentle swirls of sound created by Andrews, Evian and multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman. Sometimes, Loose Future evokes distinct sounds or eras. “These Are the Good Old Days” hints at girl-group pop, “Thinkin’ On You” is ornate country-rock decorated with chiming 12-string guitars, “Loose Future” recalls when Lindsey Buckingham refashioned Fleetwood Mac as a new wave outfit for adult contemporary airwaves. Usually, Loose Future seems to exist slightly outside of time, its retro stylings not there for fashion but emotion. Andrews’ music always has been emotionally frank, an attribute that can make an album as heartbroken as Old Flowers feel a bit fragile. Although it sounds markedly different than its predecessors, that characteristic remains intact on Loose Future. The smooth, radiant production doesn’t amount to commercial pandering: It’s assured, exploratory, and warm music that mirrors Andrews’ newly opened heart.