An Album to "Fall in Love" With
I have spent most of my life as a country music hater. It’s never been my jam. Sure, I could hypothesize about why—my general taste for more energetic music, my desire to distance myself from the redneck chaos I have witnessed, or whatever else it might be. However, two summers ago, I began compiling a playlist of country songs I actually did enjoy, mostly contemporary country. Somewhere along the way, in a pivotal moment unbeknownst to me at the time, my younger brother introduced me to a few tracks from Bailey Zimmerman’s debut album, Religiously. The Album. Instantly enamored with his sound, I decided to listen to the entire album and see how the rest of it held up. Little did I know how much I would come to adore this album and that my music taste would expand to embrace the country genre because of it. That might seem a little strange, given how overwhelmingly sad the album is. Most of the songs focus on the ending or br...