Open Book

Kalie Shorr released a handful of tracks, mixtapes, and EPs before arriving at her confessional country-pop approach, distinctly influenced by emo and ’90s alt rock, which fits her well. She teased that direction on last year\'s *Awake* before going all in on *Open Book*, her full-length debut. True to the title, she’s said that the songs’ confrontational, diaristic details are her way of processing her own family tragedy and romantic betrayal, and she co-produced the album with Skip Black, merging spiky guitar sounds with energetic acoustic instrumentation. “Messy,” a piano ballad postmortem of the breakup, is bewildered and biting, but the pop-punk-leaning “F U Forever” is especially savage and clever: “Now I’m wearing your stupid ring on my pretty little middle finger,” she gloats, “so I can say F U forever.” “Escape” surveys varieties of self-medication, “Gatsby” pinpoints the dishonesty bound up in likability, and “Angry Butterfly” has the swagger and youthful intensity of someone who’s newly harnessed the power of her feelings.

On her self-released debut, the future country star discusses some hard knocks with an abundance of empathy, humour and honesty