House On Fire

Mickey Guyton could have titled this album *Career on Fire* after the singer-songwriter’s accolade-filled last few years, which kicked off in earnest following the release of her debut studio album, *Remember Her Name*, in 2021. Since then, Guyton has racked up a handful of Grammy nominations, performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl LVI, and championed diversity efforts within country music, like CMT’s Equal Access Development Program. These seismic changes—along with some personal milestones, too, like the 2021 birth of her first child—don’t mean a drastically different direction on this sophomore studio album, though, which retains the empowered spirit of its predecessor, but also loosens up a bit, as Guyton sounds more at home musically than ever before. The opening track, “My Side of the Country,” takes the country trope of an origin story-song and livens it up with a decidedly ’90s-inspired pop-country vibe. “Make ’Em Like You” is a synthy love bop à la Keith Urban’s “The Fighter.” And Kane Brown joins Guyton on “Nothing Compares to You,” an outside cut that features an unexpected co-writing credit from pop star Bebe Rexha. Guyton co-wrote 10 of the album’s dozen tracks, with collaborators including Tyler Hubbard, Corey Crowder, and Abbey Cone.