COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS - Valentine

Courtney Marie Andrews shed her country-singer guise long ago, moving toward a more refined, mature approach chasing the chimera of pop-rock.

With her ninth album "Valentine", the songwriter lays her cards on the table right away, naming as inspiration not only Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk", but also the rock and power-pop turbulence of Big Star's "Third" - while still lingering on that underlying romanticism that has always defined her finest work. Courage and inspiration go hand in hand, dramatic flair and poetic flexibility are dressed in exquisite, richly detailed instrumental arrangements that frame inspired lyrics and memorable melodies.

While on "Keeper" the songwriter capitalizes on Joni Mitchell's influence with a folk-jazz ease that flows smoothly and draws the listener in, the even more striking "Cons & Clows" opts for the fragility of country music before infecting it with romantic goth-folk echoes that could have come straight off a Kate Bush record.

The fact that "Outsider" is a romantic, Abba-style ballad that Stevie Nicks wouldn't have minded singing herself is just another sign of an expressive intensity the songwriter has always chased, and one Andrews finally seems to have captured without sacrificing the vulnerability and honesty that are synonymous with humanity.

"Valentine" is not an easy album - refined and seemingly not very instinctive, even when the songs appear to follow more conventional lines ("Only The Rest For Baby"). It's easier to lose yourself in the languid notes of the understated "Best Friend", worthy of the finest 70s singer-songwriter tradition, or in the classic "Pendulum Spring", which slots neatly into the groove carved out by Carole King and Fleetwood Mac.

Even so, "Valentine" is a record that will partly disappoint longtime fans, more inclined to celebrate yet another introspective, predictable folksinger than the adventurous instrumental alchemy of the biting "Everyone Wants To Feel Like You Do", which tackles human selfishness head-on, weaving in sharp little guitar scratches and a minimal, obsessive percussive mood (in the vein of late-period Tom Petty).

"Magic Touch" takes the crown as the album's most country-oriented track, though it also offers intriguing glimpses of gospel-soul, but the true power of an album like "Valentine" lies in its two most intense tracks: the first is "Little Picture Of A Butterfly", an almost psychedelic dissertation built on synths, flutes and organ, with a crescendo that shatters its new-age nuances into a triumph of imagination; but it's with the closing "Hangman" that Courtney Marie Andrews finally lays bare all her emotional fragility, entrusting to her voice - never so clear and impassioned - one of the most intense musical confessions in contemporary female songwriting.

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21/01/2026