Castles

After years of touring, Lissie swapped the fast-lane for flowing rivers and moved to a farm in 2015. The rolling hills of her Iowa home breathe fresh air onto her fourth album—honey-sweet vocals, country guitar, shimmering tambourines, and breezy melodies craft a sun-soaked vision of her rural escape. It’s not just her home’s landscape that has inspired her. Among “bird calling, water falling, dreams in the sunshine” (“Boyfriend”), Iowa has given her space to reflect. She shares her wisdom in powerful roars on “Best Days” but it’s stripped-back ballad “Blood and Muscle” where her shiver-inducing vocals shine brightest.

Castles contains emotion as bare you’ll hear in any pop album ever.

Elisabeth Corrin Maurus has quietly become one of the most vital vocalists around. Read the NME review of her fourth album, 'Castles'

Lissie spent two albums dwelling in California, first cutting an attempted crossover with Jacknife Lee (2013's Back to Forever) and then creating a West Coast fantasia on 2016's My Wild West, before deciding to relocate to Iowa.

Castles is Lissie's poppiest album yet, and her incredible voice elevates even the weakest moments of its songwriting.

'Castles by Lissie': Lissie turns pop and alt-country into something genre-defiant on 'Castles'