That's How Rumors Get Started

Authenticity became a byword for the music of Margo Price, likely due to the dramatic story behind her 2016 debut album Midwest Farmer's Daughter. Self-funded and released on Jack White's Third Man Records, the album felt like a throwback to the glory days of outlaw country, a sound that enlivened and emphasized her hard-luck stories. Price sustained that vibe on 2017's All American Made but she started to broaden her purview, laying the groundwork for the lush, expansive That's How Rumors Get Started. Superficially, That's How Rumors Get Started appears to be the reverse image of the flinty Midwest Farmer's Daughter, swapping its lean immediacy for ornate arrangements that occasionally evoke memories of the early '80s, when New Wave country and album-oriented rock sometimes intermingled. Price rarely indulges in nostalgia or retro-fetishism, the vintage sounds function as coloring and texture on an album whose songs are clearly the work of the storyteller of Midwest Farmer's Daughter.