(Atlantic Outpost)The breakout 24-year-old country star\u2019s debut is stunningly unremarkable, offering little in the way of artistic identity or her peers\u2019 originality<\/p>\n
Anyone railing against nepo babies taking over culture has already lost: the rage they engender is as key to the publicity plan as their ready-made profile. But once in a while, you meet one so egregious that it\u2019s hard not to want to flip a table. The breakout 24-year-old country star Stella Lefty is the daughter of a multibillionaire Groupon co-founder. Given her stunningly unremarkable songwriting, you wonder whether that might explain a few things.<\/p>\n
After gaining notice for posting clips of her music, Lefty wanted to work as a songwriter-for-hire until music execs insisted she was an artist. It\u2019s hard to tell what her USP is: her huge hit Boston sounded so much like Noah Kahan\u2019s Stick Season that she had to add a retrospective credit. Her writing has none of his introspection or regional specifics, nor the wry country literacy of close competitor Ella Langley. In Lefty\u2019s songs, she\u2019s often catching some guy\u2019s eye at the bar. Maybe they get together but then she runs, because she always does \u2013 but maybe this time, she doesn\u2019t? She knows it\u2019s good when he\u2019s nice to her, or they look good in photos. Props: whiskey, neon lights, bar stools. It\u2019s relatable, right? Right??<\/p>\n
The sound of Long Way Home is just as indistinct and trope-ridden. Lefty\u2019s putatively \u201cauthentic\u201d and grating vocal rasp just highlights the Cali-raised singer\u2019s fake southern accent. There are the songs that evoke drunk gal pals hollerin\u2019 and hootin\u2019 at a dusty bar, the cute banjo-cluckin\u2019 ones, a few heavier numbers. It\u2019s wallpaper for made-for-Netflix movies, beach bars and GRWM videos. All in all, she\u2019s a fine inheritor of the knockdown family business.<\/p>\n