Album Review: Nickel Creek - A Dotted Line

For the most part, Nickel Creek are all acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle and tight country harmonies. Until Hayloft, that is, a track so poppy and ADD bad grrrl-fuelled, it sounds like Sleigh Bells went unplugged. It's perplexing, bizarre and absolutely perfect in its inclusion. A Dotted Line is an unapologetically country album by an unapologetically country band, but don't think that makes it something you've heard before. They mightn't break any genre rules, but Nickel Creek bend them enough and put so much of themselves into every song it's way too personal to ever be derivative.