2013 has come on strong here recently for quality albums, with some real contenders for the coveted “Album of the Year” distinction released just in the last week. Any “Best Of” album list for 2013 is also going to reflect the leadership and creativity displayed by country music women, which has become one of the year’s underlying themes so far.
Ladies and gentlemen, Caitlin Rose has arrived. The Stand-In is frighteningly good. It’s an enterprise in the evocation of rich human emotions, interwoven with delicious hooks and intelligent riffs, stirring vocal performances delivering meaningful, elevated lyricism, and a towering production performance that may go down in the history books. Just simply… Wow.
The only thing better than a Caitlin Rose song is a Caitlin Rose video. Then again I lost all objectivity long, long ago when it came to judging this girl. She could serve up a flaming cowpie and I’d be twisting words around to convince you to drop .99¢ on it at iTunes. I’ve been compromised by Caitlin’s spellbinding ability to embed the most sincere, most deep personal emotions into her music.