Talk of This Town

Editors’ Notes Having discovered country music at the age of 12 through Taylor Swift, Northern Ireland’s Catherine McGrath found comfort in Nashville’s tales of heartache and emotional turbulence. “I felt like the artists I listened to knew exactly what I was going through, like I should be their best friend,” she tells Apple Music. It encouraged her to pour her own experiences into songwriting, resulting in a catchy country-pop debut that explores relatable feelings via personal stories. She recalls the agonizing purgatory of being more than friends but not quite lovers (“Wild”) and confronts the hurtful sniping of someone she trusted (“Talk of This Town”) with the intention of paying forward the solace her favorite country songs once offered her. “I really hope this album is going to connect with people,” she says, “and make them feel like their pain, whatever they’re going through, is normal and that they’ll get through it.”