Courtney Marie Andrews: Valentine

"Over the years, Andrews has garnered comparisons to fellow Arizona native Linda Ronstadt for her rich, clear tone, which can modulate from quivering vibrato to crystalline belt on a dime. From the first piercing high of opening track "Pendulum Swing," Andrews commands her dynamic voice across Valentine, swinging into phrases with the grace and gravity of a trapeze artist."

"She has cultivated a multi-disciplinary catalog of despair, devotion, and delicate wonder: songs that ache with intensity, poems about love and eucalyptus, paintings of women crying onto tables. At a time when artists increasingly tailor their hooks for TikTok algorithms and retrofit their images to micro-trends, she isn't vulnerable because it sells but because it's her modus operandi."

Courtney Marie Andrews has built a nearly two-decade career centered on sincere, open-hearted songwriting across multiple disciplines. Her work blends songs that ache with intensity, poems, and visual art that convey despair, devotion, and delicate wonder. Andrews favors vulnerability as an artistic mode rather than a calculated strategy, often exposing the pains of overtrusting. On Valentine, her ninth LP, she deploys a commanding, versatile voice that recalls Linda Ronstadt’s clarity, shifting from quivering vibrato to crystalline belts. The album focuses less on heartbreak and more on the weight of love and the defended right to pine.

Read at Pitchfork