The third and last of the
Pistol Annies to deliver her own solo record,
Angaleena Presley operates on a more intimate scale than either
Miranda Lambert or
Ashley Monroe.
Lambert trades on her bravado,
Monroe on her savviness, but
Presley relies on subtlety on
American Middle Class, her long-awaited 2014 solo debut. Attitude isn't of paramount importance here, nor is the kind of flashy production that would send her into the country charts. With its measured arrangements and deliberate, detailed narratives, what
American Middle Class most resembles is
Brandy Clark's acclaimed 2013 album
12 Stories ("Drunk" sounds like an unofficial prelude to
Clark's "Hungover") but
Presley is a distinctive songwriter in her own right, possessing a knack for conveying the fraying dreams of a middle America with empathy and sly humor. Sometimes, the jokes are front and center, as they are on the shambling "Knocked Up," but the nifty thing about
American Middle Class is how
Presley often blurs the line between sobriety and satire on her sketches of lives lived on the fringe of America. Perhaps
Presley isn't a powerhouse of a singer but her lazy gait means her barbed sensibility goes down smooth, so it's only after the record has concluded that the depth and variety of
American Middle Class sink in. This is a rich, deceptively relaxed portrait of working-class life in America in 2014 and it will linger for some time to come. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine