Own Side Now

She is a knowing-and, more importantly, feeling-country musician, and one with a bright future ahead of her.

While it may occasionally get too precious for some ears, Own Side Now is a tantalizing debut.

Own Side Now, her first full-length, is more serious in every way - moodier subject matter; longer, more carefully structured songs; a more robust sense of heritage.

Though the album sounds like the work of what film critic Nathan Rabin has dubbed the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" (and the album's stylized cover art only adds to that impression), it's clear that Rose is a talent worth following.

The crooning background vocals rise and trade phrases with a simple guitar solo that follows the melody of the main vocal line. It's a flush and full sound in perfect pairing with a sentiment that defines the entire album.

Rose still has plenty of time and room to grow, and across Own Side Now she sounds at times in search of a singular voice yet also utterly confident in her band, her arrangements, and her songs.

Similarities to She And Him abound, but minus Zooey's showtune splendour, the vulnerability in Caitlin's voice chimes as true as the clink of a quarter in an old jukebox.

Comparisons or not, Rose exceeded the expectations that her EP drummed up and delivered a beautiful and tender, youthfully energetic album that crosses the line Rose herself has been toeing so carefully between indie and country.

Delivering on that precocious promise, Rose's debut long-player actually reins in her EP's feistier extremes somewhat to deliver 10 tracks of timeless, simply adorned (albeit by some dextrously restrained Music Row stalwarts) song-craft which, while they certainly doff a 10-gallon hat to the country canon, never seem constrained by Nashville tropes, old or new.

Now pure country, her songwriting has taken a leap, too, delivering a profusion (sometimes an excess) of memorable choruses and arrangements freighted with emotion.

She may have cut a slightly different path than she hinted at on Dead Flowers, but make no mistake: Caitlin Rose is the best thing to come out of Nashville in a long damn time.

The 21-year-old with the bell-clear vocals scarcely puts a foot wrong, sliding easily between solemn country balladry and snappy country rock. [Sep 2010, p.90]

Lovely stuff. [Sep 2010, p.120]