Carter Faith - Cherry Valley (2025) (Hi-Res)

A star is born with Cherry Valley, country ingénue Carter Faith's much-anticipated debut album, even if the picture is still not completely in focus. She's a little bit Tammy and a little bit Lana (Del Rey, that is), and beaming with so much promise. The 25-year-old North Carolina native's voice is full of contradictions. She's able to bellow while staying as crystal clear as a stream, yet can also sound soft and pillowy—with a hint of hard-edged mountain twang. Written with the wonderful Ashley Monroe, the title track plays out as a neo-noir epic: melodramatic, soap operatic, heavy with fever-pitch strings, and featuring Faith unleashing a long, high note like she's summoning a storm. "Sex, Drugs, & Country Music" flirts like Nancy Sinatra and delivers laugh-out-loud shocks as Faith sings about discovering Adderall in a bathroom stall, shamelessly wanting to get high, and her holy trinity: "Little green, satin sheets and Waylon/ Heals the soul of a heart that's breakin'."

Faith shows she's mastered the classic Nashville art of wordplay on "Betty," which alternates between woe-is-me balladry and a wild, neo-trad '90s chorus: "I bet he's at the levee in the back of a Chevy/ And the clothes are coming off and it's getting hot and heavy/ I bet he's saying everything he never said to me/I bet he, I bet he, I bet he, yeah I bet he's … ." The album is described as a chronicle of her time in Nashville, living and loving and getting into feuds. It feels genuine when she croons to a rival, "I'm pretty sure that even Jesus thinks that you're a bitch," on the Ella Langley-esque "Grudge," sassy with saloon piano and revved-up rockabilly guitar. ("Well honestly, this girl, I just found out she was talking some junk about me and I got mad about it and wrote a song," Faith has said.) "Bar Star" is a honky-tonkin' number about loving a barfly ("bless his liver"), and "Burn My Memory" builds up to a shit-kickin' chorus. That one's written with Jessi Alexander (Luke Combs' "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma," Miley Cyrus' "The Climb"), while Sabrina Carpenter's right-hand collaborator Amy Allen lends an assist on catchy "Drink Up, Baby."

There are plenty of ballads to go with the fun, including moody "Misery Loves Company," swoony and nostalgic "Changed," and sweeping "If I Had Never Lost My Mind…"—which finds Faith's starting with a soft sigh then whipping into a wail that could blow the leaves off the trees, all in a matter of seconds. Refreshingly, there is absolutely nothing crossover about her songs, which can feel like an act of defiance in Nashville. Faith still may be figuring out exactly what her legacy will be, but her career is starting off like a thrill ride. © Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist
1. Cherry Valley (3:52)
2. Sex, Drugs, & Country Music (3:37)
3. Arrows (Die For That Man) (3:52)
4. Bar Star (2:53)
5. Betty (2:55)
6. Grudge (3:16)
7. Six String (4:07)
8. If I Had Never Lost My Mind… (3:11)
9. Misery Loves Company (3:17)
10. Drink Up, Baby (3:28)
11. Burn My Memory (3:33)
12. Sails (3:47)
13. So I Sing (3:52)
14. Changed (4:36)