Freshly Squeezed, Vol. 89: Little Big Town, MAX, Bronze Avery & more

Welcome to Freshly Squeezed, a weekly new music playlist: spanning country, pop, EDM and urban, mainstream and other.

Country music must stand up. This is not a time for excuses. Among other such industry leaders as Maren Morris, Margo Price and Jason Isbell, Little Big Town make a gutsy statement with their new song “The Daughters.” It’s coated with their signature harmony work in a nest of twiggy pop-country production, but the lyrics are particularly timely and monumental, scraping below the surface on how women are treated within the patriarchy’s ever-tightening stranglehold. “Oh girl wash your face before you come to the table / Girl know your place, be willing and able,” sings Karen Fairchild, a heaviness palpable in her voice. She almost cracks under the emotional weight, but she pushes onward for not only herself and bandmate Kimberly Schlapman but all women. A stunning, loom-woven ballad, the lead-in to the band’s ninth studio record is a call to action. We. must. listen.

Milwaukee’s Crystal Knives punctures the senses with “When I’m Okay,” a scratchy, sweltering fever dream featuring Sarah de Warren and acclaimed cellist Eru Matsumoto. Warren’s voice is as golden strands of yarn, yanked and stitched together with Matsumoto’s unsettling string work that only stretches the (emotional) ties that bind. Operating as both as skin-peeling dive-bar banger and a provocative mental discharge, the track shatters any notion of genre or expectation, flipping convention right on its head and breaking it in two. “Don’t come back when I’m okay…” Warren sings, her voice splinted as light cast through a glass prism. And it’s there, in mesmeric tragedy, that the beauty is soon recovered.

Pop seducer MAX links up with Quinn XCII for a silky new slow-talker. “Love Me Less,” thick on vibe, smooth on texture, is the two volatile performers at supreme enchantment. “Would you love me less if you knew the places that I’ve been / If you knew the damage that I did / Would you love me less,” MAX ponders, dropping to his knees to do a bit of groveling. As is his way, he tempts the listener into a destructive, fire-torn landscape of stifling sensuality and charm. And then, Quinn XCII breaks out his spit as a leather-bound whip, and we’re at their mercy.

The new playlist also includes gems from Madelin, Talia Storm, Kacey Musgraves, Michelle LeBlanc, Bronze Avery, Alexander Carson, Caroline Spence, Lydia Persaud, Adam Craig, Spencer Ludwig, David Quinn, Evolix, Ashe, Gia Woods, Sydney Cope, Jared & the Mill, Carter Reeves and countless others.

In all, we’ve got 35 new songs to go to live drives along the coastline or out into the country to.

Each playlist will be refreshed every Friday morning/afternoon. We reserve the right to update anytime during the week, so make sure you bookmark this page.

Take a spin:

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