As a 12-year-old on summer break with nothing to do in the desert wasteland of Nevada, I spent the whole month of July replaying Kelsea Ballerini’s debut album, “The First Time.” Just seeing the cover — Ballerini rocking a 2010s smoky eye and pink lip — brings me back to the moment I first heard it, feeling empowered by her kick-ass breakup tunes and teenage love ballads.
Since her debut, Ballerini has grown into a country music star, known for her signature country twang with hints of rock, R&B and pop. Her latest release, however, lacks its usual southern groove. Save a couple hits, “PATTERNS,” while sending a wonderful message of self-love, is overall repetitive and forgettable and left me — and my 12-year-old self — disappointed.
A turning point for the artist, Kelsea Ballerini’s fifth studio album was released on Oct. 25. This is the first collection of songs she has released since her vulnerable 2023 EP, “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat,” which detailed her divorce from Australian country music star Morgan Evans.
The album includes some heartbreaking ballads but overall strikes a much more hopeful note, as it focuses on how Ballerini seeks to heal and find love again. While the underlying messages of growth and outgrowing bad habits in “PATTERNS” are admirable, the majority of the songs in the album are far from noteworthy. The 15-track collection is a mess of catchy but annoying lyrics and autotuned melodies that are horribly lacking in the storytelling genius that originally brought the Tennessean fame.
The lyrics of “I Would, Would You” are a batch of phrases that I genuinely feel my 12-year-old self could have come up with, like “Life is short, life is long, but it’s better with you here.” It also includes intermittent clapping reminiscent of a Kidz Bop jam and a lackluster choir in its last 10 seconds. “Nothing Really Matters” attempts to convey Ballerini’s journey to finding peace, but fails to do so in an original manner. Ballerini employs overused pop culture references throughout the chorus, such as “Nothing really matters, aliens, pyramids” and “Nothing really matters, we’re on a rock in space,” which point to a lack of lyrical sophistication.
The opening line of “Deep” is actively cringeworthy, with Ballerini stating: “Standing in my underwear / Baby, babe, I’m jumping right in.” While the song’s chorus redeems itself somewhat through Ballerini’s vocals, it is sung with an overlay of autotune and robotic beeps that would make The Chainsmokers proud while leaving her country fans disgusted. Throughout the song’s two minutes and 22 seconds, I begged for Ballerini to put the electronic keyboard down and pick her guitar back up.
“WAIT!” is perhaps the wordiest mess in the album. Lyrics like “Wait! Don’t go / You’re all I wanna know, you’re all I wanna know / Wait! Don’t go” get boring and predictable by the second refrain. With a weak chorus and random, thoughtless interjections of “wait” and “stay” throughout, making it through the whole song is difficult.
That is not to say the whole album is a failed experiment. The titular “PATTERNS” creates a lovable track with a soulful tune and beautiful banjo strums that perfectly match her attempt to answer the question: “ill I outgrow all these patterns?”
“First Rodeo” — a love song Ballerini wrote about her new boyfriend, “Outer Banks” star Chase Stokes — highlights her mesmerizing, melodic voice, proving her success isn’t a fluke. The whole song includes clever comparisons to love being like riding a bull at the rodeo. “Thought I knew all of the ropes / Thought I could ride like a pro,” and “I fell off, babe, but I found you” echo the storytelling genius that was missing in a lot of the other tracks.
“Sorry Mom” is a heartfelt ode to the pains of going against traditional values and disappointing your loved ones that includes a tasteful blend of country-rock elements. And “Cowboys Cry Too” featuring Noah Kahan, one of the album’s singles, beautifully highlights each artist’s talents against a captivating fiddle. Kahan’s warm, soulful tone complements Ballerini’s winsome sound, creating a heartfelt tune worth keeping on repeat.
While a couple of songs from the album will make it into my regular country mix, I will forgo the rest of its wordy pop beats for some of Ballerini’s more classic tunes. Unfortunately, it seems Kelsea Ballerini has fallen victim to the pop music machine without any sense of novelty to back her up. While some may rejoice in her new genre switch, I will continue to pray that Ballerini finds a way to return to her traditional Tennessee roots.
Contact Ashley Combs at [email protected].