Baytown - EP

The fact that RaeLynn is on her third Nashville label since 2012 is actually a sign of her perseverance and peppery musical personality. Now signed to Florida Georgia Line’s imprint, Round Here Records, she’s named her new EP, all of which she co-wrote, for her Texas hometown. She puts her sweetened rasp to cheeky, drawling use over Corey Crowder’s rhythm-driven production, speckled with traditional licks on hand-played instruments. RaeLynn has no trouble conveying attitude during “Bra Off,” a feminine expression of eye-rolling relief to be rid of a guy; “Me About Me,” the weary air-clearing of an attentive woman tired of one-sidedness; and “Judgin’ to Jesus,” which gleefully brushes off middle-class condescension toward supposedly tawdry blue-collar contradictions. The latter track sits at the intersection of old-school country recitation and hip-hop, which RaeLynn echoes with the brash claim that she's “a little down-home, a little Cardi B.”