Tenille Townes first cracked America as an opening act for
Miranda Lambert in 2018, so maybe it's not a surprise that
The Lemonade Stand -- both her major-label debut and the first record she's released as an adult -- has vague echoes of
Lambert within its songs, but
Townes hardly replicates her spitfire appeal. Throughout
The Lemonade Stand, she veers toward the sweeter side of things, a sensibility that's as apparent in her pop tunes as it is in her ballads, a sensibility that also allows her to indulge in a sparkling, amorphous modernity. Working with
Jay Joyce -- a producer who regularly collaborates with
Eric Church but also has helmed albums by
Ashley McBryde,
Brandy Clark,
Brothers Osborne, and
Carrie Underwood --
Townes leans in toward a country-pop that blurs the boundaries between the two by dressing its sturdy traditional craft in glistening digital flair. The occasional moments where
Joyce strips away all the pop pizzazz reveal
Townes as a sharp singer/songwriter. The barebones numbers are solid and
Townes carries them, but
The Lemonade Stand truly kicks when it's at its poppiest, as on the exuberant "Come as You Are" and "White Horse." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine