Rather than relying on instrumental elements to create a foundation for her sound, B.B. Cole is being a little more adventurous with her debut album Outgrowing Ourselves. In “Demons” or “My Decision,” it’s her lyrical wit that’s serving as the bones of the narrative rather than the definition, with many of the harmonies that would normally be tasked with framing her words now taking on a much more demonstrative role in this presentation. Outgrowing Ourselves is stunningly existential in this regard, especially when considering the kind of content that most of the country music community has been producing in the last few years.
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“Some Kind of Religion” is probably one of the best example tracks of Cole’s versatility as a singer, mostly because it’s built like a traditional country track but performed with the aesthetical command of a pop singer. Don’t mix the hybridity in this performance up with the country/pop crossovers you’d find across the FM dial on any typical day, though – the verses alone place this performance closer to the alternative end of the spectrum than anything on the mainstream tends to be, and the fluff of a standard pop track is nowhere to be found on the instrumental half of the track.
Although she straddles piano keys and subtle basslines quite handily in a few of these tracks, there’s no debating whether or not the guitar is B.B. Cole’s best friend in Outgrowing Ourselves. When she’s working on a harmony in “Wear Your Crown” or the equally blues-influenced “She Gave Me Feathers,” the strings echo elements of her personality that words could only attempt to capture on their own, and while the fretwork is never particularly indulgent, it’s strong enough in this mix to be a constant presence no matter the tempo or substance of the lyrics.
Cole isn’t scared to conceptualize black and white themes in “Emotional Baggage,” “When I Was a Little Girl,” and “Tears and Fears,” and I think she shows off a lot of attitude in these three tracks specifically that I want her to run with more in the future. She doesn’t have the personality of someone hesitant when it comes to saying how she really feels in front of a hook, and her drive winds up being one of the more important elements of the show in Outgrowing Ourselves because of that. If continuously produced without a filter, I don’t see her having a hard time winning over both casual country fans and more serious pop listeners the same.
I didn’t know about B.B. Cole before I got turned onto her debut record just a month ago, but there’s a lot to be said about the potential she’s working with right now.
She’s justifiably getting a lot of love from the press thanks to the confident sound she’s putting forth in this album, and with a little more grooming for the mainstream stage, she’s going to be able to do just about anything her voice can support (which is quite the statement on its own).
Heather Savage
