Release Date: Jan 13, 2023
Genre(s): Country, Singer/Songwriter
Record label: Loma Vista
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Strays from Amazon
On the penultimate track of Strays, we meet Lydia--a Marlboro-smoking victim of gentrification and abuse, wondering if she'll ever be anything but "trailer trash." Margo Price invites us to see her as she is: broken, vilified, conflicted, hurting, surrounded by substance abuse, human. It's the type of God-forsaken situation that can hardly be sung about, and so Price hardly does. She neglects to rhyme and barely carries a tune, letting her words flow stream-of-consciousness and just sit beside it all.
Margo Price has always walked her own path . A Nashville rebel, her songwriting is rooted in a pursuit of the truth, no matter the cost. Leaning in on her rock influences for 2020 statement 'That's How Rumors Get Started', she once again spins the dials on this eclectic, enthralling follow-up. The work of an artist grappling with inspiration, 'Strays' was – Margo Price insists – spurred on by a mushroom trip in the desert, the shackles of her musicality suddenly unbound.
Photo by Alysse Gafkjen Margo Price first appeared in mainstream culture as a throwback country singer. Debut album Midwest Farmer's Daughter talked about the family farm and Nashville with more than a little honky tonk. With each album since then, Price broadened her sound, mixing in R&B, rock, and pop, even getting some shiny production for a big theater presentation.
is available now