On the outskirts of 21st-century alt-country, Esther Rose’s voice rings out. Born in Detroit in the late ‘80s, the New Orleans-based singer’s 2017 debut, This Time Last Night, has a timeless quality that sounds like it was recorded in the ‘50s or ‘60s. On this record, Rose’s vibe was close enough to the outlaw country resurgence of the 2010s that she found a comfortable place alongside artists like Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson. These artists share a fondness for using traditional instrumentation in songwriting that addresses present-day concerns—or rejects the modern world altogether. Songs about love lost never seem to fall out of fashion, though, and the sting of heartache in Rose’s gloriously anachronistic vocal twang could compete with the genre’s classic tearjerkers. Even within the modern sounds of her 2020s output, Rose’s mournful lilt keeps her firmly in a long-running tradition of world-weary country singers.