Samantha Crain - Kid Face (2014)

That there's a little too much misery on this third album from the 27-year-old Oklahoman doesn't obscure a promising talent at work. The album's bare-bones production is a break from Crain's previous group work, and push her robust but vulnerable voice to the fore. The bright opener, Never Going Back, with its hoedown fiddle and talk of "a horse that kicked me in the heart" is at odds with the solemn stuff that follows, which at worst descends into the glum plod of For the Miner. Still, Crain wears her pain proudly and songs like Churchill ring with poetic candour.