Album Review: Marlon Williams And Kacy & Clayton - Plastic Bouquet

New Zealand's Marlon Williams has cut what feels like his most traditional country album in Plastic Bouquet, collaborating with Kacy & Clayton. After randomly discovering the quaint Canadian folk duo on Spotify, Williams travelled to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for initial recording sessions over Christmas 2018.

Williams' ascent as an alt-country star has been auspicious – even putting him on Hollywood's radar, with a cameo in Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, A Star Is Born. Today, country music is hip – and transgressive – again. Plastic Bouquet is Williams' first studio album since 2018's Make Way For Love – and, for Kacy & Clayton, their sixth overall.

As with Orville Peck, Williams usually commands an Elvis Presley-like swagger, only he's broodier. But, duetting with the sweetly-toned singer/songwriter/storyteller Kacy Anderson, he lets her assume the lead – including on the liltingly poignant, rootsy title-track (Clayton Linthicum's role is as instrumentalist). And, with Plastic Bouquet, the troubadour delves fully into his Americana influences.

The mood of Plastic Bouquet is sentimental and sincere, but occasionally playful, as Williams and Anderson embrace country's tragic romance tropes. Deceptively jaunty, the opener Isn't It reveals conflicted emotions. In the poppy Light Of Love, Anderson evokes Lana Del Rey with her soulful vibrato. Williams comes to the fore on the plaintive lead single I Wonder Why, with steel guitar. Old Fashioned Man is an arch prairie duet with contemporary ironising, with Anderson almost yodelling.

Williams also notably draws from his Māori heritage, with a distinctly Polynesian take on country – here, accentuating harmonies. In the quietly dramatic atmosphere of Arahura, he croons an ode to the South Island river of the same name, a spot known for its precious (and coveted) pounamu (greenstone). The darkest and most intimate moment arrives in the haunting ballad Devil's Daughter, with Anderson showing her narrative flair.

Plastic Bouquet is enigmatically good.