ballerini

A common way to maximize the reach of a pop song, including one of a country-pop variety, is to release a big remix on the heels of the original. Half a dozen years into her Nashville hitmaking career, Kelsea Ballerini is no doubt familiar with this practice, but she chose an entirely different approach. On her March 2020 album, simply titled *kelsea*, she applied sheer, sprightly rhythmic production to acutely confessional material, but this companion piece, dubbed *ballerini* and recorded during quarantine, presents those same tunes with subdued, largely acoustic arrangements. In the new version of “overshare,” the singer-songwriter dials back her wryness to bring insecurity into focus. With its beat-driven energy stripped away, “needy” no longer sounds blissful, but a little uneasy at being in the grip of such emotion. Backed by string band accompaniment, Ballerini’s disgust for an untrue lover takes on a more plaintive quality in \"love and hate.\" Together, the two sets, both of which she co-produced, are her artful way of laying her effervescent persona and embrace of vulnerability side by side.

A companion to Kelsea Ballerini's March 2020 album Kelsea, September 2020's Ballerini is an alternate version of her earlier record, containing new, stripped-back versions of the LP's 13 songs.