Album Review: Caitlin Rose - The Stand-In

Taylor Swift has done one helluva disservice to country chicks. Namely, those unfamiliar with the likes of Loretta, Tammy and Patsy assume that all ladies touched with that Nashville magic like to whinge and whine about love and guys and stuff. While that might be the case, usually most of them manage to do it without the whinging and the whining – like Caitlin Rose.

This is Rose's second offering and it's a little brasher than the first, even managing to swing ever so slightly into the alt.country landscape. The album is a rabid mix of everything quintessentially country, y'all, but sadly, fails to leave any aftertaste – you'll forget the tunes the moment you to take out those earphones. It's sad, because Rose's songwriting is clever, mature and witty.

The mandolin-backed No One To Call opens the album to a slow start – not the best choice, really. But Rose's vocals are soft and inviting enough to hook you and keep your trigger finger off the switch. Rose's wry, coy sound blossoms through I Was Cruel as she coos in her weak twang, “Baby to love/Baby to love/Me or she?”, before the tempo steps up in Waitin' and Only A Clown.

There is one saviour, though – Rose's cover of The Felice Brothers tune Dallas is a little more beautiful and a little more painful than the original, but more importantly, it's the first time we really get the chance to hear a kind of lonely pleading in her voice – something Rose should focus on injecting into the songs, rather than the wistful yearning she seems to lean on.