The Stand-In

Though Caitlin Rose is based in Nashville and often associated with a traditional retro-country sound, it's not quite accurate to call her work country music. Despite certain stylistic tics that show up in her phrasing and arrangements, she balances many worlds. From the first blast of electric guitar on the opening track—"No One to Call," where the radio never plays the songs she likes—Rose channels a world far larger than one genre. The electric keyboards of "Waitin'" show what she can do with a tune redolent of Ben Folds Five. "Only a Clown" builds around a guitar-keyboard sound that's Americana rock in the Wilco tradition. "Pink Champagne" adds a pedal steel for a metropolitan adult contemporary country ballad of exquisite taste and flavor. "Everywhere I Go" uses an atmospheric backing that recalls the ambient textures once favored by U2. Traces of Patsy Cline can be heard in Rose's delivery, but the joyous musical bounce of "Menagerie" is too much its own thing to be anyone else's music.