Margo Price refreshes the country genre

Strays%2C+the+fourth+studio+album+from+Margo+Price%2C+was+released+in+January+2023.

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Strays, the fourth studio album from Margo Price, was released in January 2023.

Georgia Holbert, Staff Writer

Margo Price’s new album Strays blends country and pop music to create songs that tell her life stories behind the lyrics. 

While country music is not a favorite by most, Margo Price blends it with many other genres of music, making it not sound like the average country song. 

This album contains 10 songs with 3 different features on them, including Sharon Van Etten, Lucius, and Mike Campbell.

One of the best parts of Strays is how nonrepetitive the lyrics are. Most songs, in general, have a long chorus or lines that continuously repeat multiple times throughout it. Strays, however, has very short choruses overall and few recurring lines. 

Strays does not directly talk about relationships in every song, which is a nice refresher from the common-day country song usually based on men. She talks about many societal and personal issues, such as gentrification, drugs, childhood trauma, and a belief in god. 

One of the few issues with this album is the quality of the production. Margo’s voice sounds quite scratchy, which does not suit the music very well. This brings the value of it down, making it not as enjoyable for the listener. 

Strays sounds very similar to her first 3 albums, with the style and her voice not changing much. 

Overall, Margo Price’s Strays is an acceptable album and makes country music bearable for the non-southerners.