Hi, everyone. Cowthony Boytano here, the internet's busiest... Actually, boythony toytano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. (What is wrong with me? What is wrong with me!? I need to go to therapy...)

Adeem the Artist - Anniversary.

This is the latest full-length LP from Tennessee singer and songwriter Adeem the Artist, a country song creator who has been making waves on the independent circuit of the genre for a minute now. Years, in fact.

This was especially the case for their last full-length LP, White Trash Revelry. "Revelry," a word that I have a very difficult time saying... This record took a long, hard look into rural American culture, and the stories of it on this record were usually fed through Adeem's experience as a queer and non-binary person. But if anything is also made clear, it's that the American experience, or however we define it, is no less theirs just because there are elements of it that tend to be hostile toward groups of people that are not straight or white.

There's also a pretty cohesive thematic focus on this latest LP Anniversary as well, with many tracks dealing in a variety of tense, toxic, tender, or make or break moments within a romantic context.

There are some narrative detours along the path this album takes, but that's fine. It's not anything that's a detriment to the record, just letting you know it's not a completely rigid concept. And before I get into the meat of what this album is about, I will make a quick assessment about how it sounds by saying, of course, this is unquestionably a country album. The twangy electric leads and rustic acoustics all over it say as much. There's definitely a nice variety of vibes and moods across the LP, stripped back ballads.

There's the opener, which plays like a spaghetti western music piece. Deeper into the album, there's some drunken New Orleans saloon jazz, as well as some heartland rock a la Bruce Springsteen. But in a side by side comparison with White Trash Revelry, the performances and instrumentals on this one feel a bit more tame and slick. I mean, for sure, the material here is still not as soulless as your average piece of crap, bro country album. I'm not saying that. But personally, I do think the instrumentation on the last record sounded a bit more fiery and bold. That being said, however, the songwriting and the lyrics much of the time on this album are very, very, very much hitting.

Whether you're talking about the absolutely unhinged relationship dynamics described on the track "Nancy". Take the opening line, for example: "She's got borderline personality disorder / And in order to get off, she's got to see me cry." I've heard this song multiple times at this point, and I'm still doing double and triple takes at multiple lines on it.

There's also the track "One Night Stand", which is about a guy seeking to have one with Adeem, who's on the opposite side of the fence and wants something that is more committed and long term. This difference in intentions ends up with a happy ending at the very end of the song that's actually heartwarming.

"Nightmare" is a song that is also about love, but maybe in more of a broader political sense, as the track is a very fiery response to recent trends of people pretty much feigning concern for children and their well-being in order to advocate for the pushing of the queer community back into the closet, essentially. Oh, no. What do the kids think if they see a trans person? The track is fueled by a lot of very justified anger, and as right as Adeem is to be pissed off, I still appreciate that on some level, they at least try to frame things in a way to where somebody who is susceptible to those narratives might see the point in what they're saying, asking, Hey, can't we all be free, including people like me?

Also, you're treading on me right now. I thought you guys didn't like the whole treading thing. What about the treading? Could we do less of that?

The read on the song "Wounded Astronaut" is pretty interesting as well, as the lyrics very much feature Adeem coming to terms the various ways in which they've engaged in very destructive and hurtful behavior in prior relationships, used people as well, and they describe themselves as being haunted by those memories and wanting to do better.

Things get a bit lighter and brighter on "Socialite Blues", which is very much this cute, flirty, silly little slice of life. Hey, I'm going to be hanging out with my lover listening to music, getting tipsy vibe. That's adorable.

Narratively, the next couple of tracks on the record see things looking forward into a more distant future. One of these tracks, "Rotations", operates out of a place of fear a bit as Adeem on this song is wondering how many days they have left with their partner as time slowly degrades their relationship through age, through maybe the progressive loss of one's mind. And yeah, this track is genuinely one of the most heart-wrenching songs I've heard this year.

There's also "Plot of Land", which is a rowdy country rocker with aspirations to create this homey, comfortable life with a partner that hopefully includes even a family. But in current day society, that is becoming more and more difficult. There's similar messaging on this track to at least a song or two on Adeem's last LP, but still, it's a pretty fierce highlight here.

Look, the problems expressed on those songs have not been alleviated since, so the fight still continues. Maybe an update in the form of this song was necessary.

A lot of these romantic narratives are switched up on the song "Night Sweats", which is one of the shorter tracks here. It's a bit of a motif about essentially being haunted by the genocide our country is currently involved in aiding and abetting over in Palestine, as Adeem describes basically being horrified by the imagery that's been coming out of there over the last eight months.

And Adeem, continuing to be no stranger to addressing bigotry and inequity, gives us this final track, "White Mule, Black Man", which goes in pretty much the direction you would expect, given the title, the superstitions and social temperature of a post-slavery rural community that are plagued by this mythical fear over the death of a white mule and how it's signifying the town essentially being doomed. While simultaneously, they think absolutely nothing of killing an innocent man over being accused of a crime he did not commit, of course. Which makes for a very harrowing but a true final note for this record to end on.

And overall, personally, I found Anniversary to be a very solid and enjoyable record with great lyrics and killer songwriting abound. I just wish the aesthetics and instrumentation, like White Trash Revelry, were a little bit more thrilling, exciting, rough, organic, or maybe even improved on the last record.

But no, I felt like they were just a bit of a step down and felt just a smidge more toothless, which is why I'm feeling a light to decent seven on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Adeem the Artist, forever.