Shelby Lynne

Genre exercises are usually leery affairs. An artist that wants to join multiple groups of fans in the celebration of him or herself usually loses sight of basic song-craft, opting for trademark tones instead of growth and experimentation. The character the artist ends up playing seems to distance them from their emotional core, and the songs typically end up feeling contrived and plastic. Coming from Shelby Lynne’s last offering of teenage heavy petting torch songs on Love, Shelby, the prospect of her making an album with ol’ country flavour seemed like a bleak affair. Identity Crisis, however, is easily her best work to date. The disc shows that country/pop conventions had held Lynne to playing a roll her whole career. It is only now, when she is free to make the music she grew up on, that her real talent shines through. Beyond just being emotionally effecting, the disc also offers up two of the truly great songs in country music history with "10 Rocks” and "Lonesome.” That is not to say that any of the others tacks fade in comparison though. From opening track "Telephone” to album closer "One With the Sun,” every song delivers fantastically written tales of country dysfunction.