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Lauren Jenkins – No Saint (Album Review)

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Lauren Jenkins - No Saint

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Lauren Jenkins - No Saint
4.8

Rating

 4.8/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • What a massive debut album
  • Ten great songs, great stories
  • Very different topics, great songwriting

Lauren Jenkins was one of three artists, who opened the 2019 Country 2 Country debut in Berlin with a traditional songwriter session. As I loved all three songs she performed, I was even more looking forward to hear more from her. Here is my view of her March 2019 brand new album No Saint, which is her debut.

Lauren Jenkins – About the Artist

Lauren Jenkins is touring with music since her age of 15. She was born in 1991 in Arlingon, Texas, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and grew up in the Carolinas. She is currently thought to be one of the most talented country music new faces and is contracted with Big Machine Group. After she released a first EP, The Nashville Sessions, in 2016, No Saint is her debut album. It is released on 15th March 2019, but was available for pre-sale at the C2C in Berlin. She also had quite some stage appearance at the C2C 2019 in London. Lauren was one of the initial Flyctory.com Featured Artists, who I aim to try to support more intensively with my website work.

 

No Saint – Track by Track

The album is a ten-track long-player, which roughly lasts 36 minutes. Four tracks, Cadillac, My Bar, All good Things and Blood, have previously been released on Jenkins’ EP.

1. Give up the Ghost

“No Saints” starts with the powerful track “Give up the Ghost” about unhappy love. I love that track, which you may also follow on YouTube.

2. You’ll never know

“You’ll never know” is as catchy as the first track on the album. Very classic, powerful, modern country music.

 

3. Maker’s Mark and You

Typically, performing songs about alcohol is more on the boys side. Here, Lauren Jenkins is singing about the things which tune you up when you are down – whiskey, cigarettes… and “you”. A lovely ballad, which has already been released in November 2018.

4. Payday

“I’m drinking my payday away” is the key phrase of this song, which is finest country rock, which makes you sway – and sometimes even gave me some decent headbanging.

 

5. No Saint

What an amazing chorus of the title track of the album:

So I opened up the Bible
Memorized the book of John
And you washed your hands in holy water
Swearing all your sins were gone
If there’s a cure for being pure, again, I can’t find it anywhere
And I don’t want to hate you
Heaven says I need to forgive you
But I ain’t no saint

The song starts very slow and melancholic before it changes to a powerful and close to defiant middle part. What a lovely way to tell a story – this is country music as I love it!

 

6. Running out of Road

I saw the short movie related to “Running out of Road” at the C2C in Berlin and immediately fell in love to that track. Right after the short movie had been published, I had to do a posting about it. Here is the lovely chorus:

I’ve got a full tank of gas
But my hearts on empty
Windows down, radio loud
But I just wanna scream
I keep trying to find a place
Where I won’t find your ghost
But I keep running, I keep running
Running out of road

Another great track. Powerful, throughtful, with lovely pictures. Great arrangement and songwriting – and a very atmospheric guitar solo at the end of the song. Listening to it live was one of my favorite performances of the whole C2C week. However, as I teased the song here, I did not feature it in the posting linked before.

7. Cadillac

A rather slow track with strong rhythm. After the series of very strong tracks, “Cadillac” seems to be a bit mousy. Still, you love to listen to the track.

8. My Bar

Another “Ex with new girlfriend” track. Love the beginning of the song

Of all the places in this town
You had to bring her around
The only place you knew I’d be
So you could make sure I see
You holdin’ hands, laughing loud
You getting drunk and making out
Keep it up, boy I swear
You can’t run me outta here

The track is very powerful, it just catches you and makes you move. One of my favorites of the album!

9. All good Things

This song has elements of reggae music to me – could be a nice one for the summer of 2019. Definitely different than the other tracks of the album – which makes it a really good one!

10. Blood

“Blood” is a lovely radio-alike ballad, which is telling the story of dark times in Jenkins’ family, especially at her sister. It is a very impressing – and depressing – finish of the album.

 

Lauren Jenkins – No Saint – My View

The Spotify link allows you to listen into No Saint:

 

Lauren Jenkins – No Saint – My View

Congrats, Lauren Jenkins! This album is absolutely gorgeous. Even if you already own the EP and thus just get six new songs, you have to buy this disc or the download. The songs are well-written and produced and very rich in their variety. The album could be a bit longer than 36 minutes, but that does not prevent me from calling it a Top Pick! Great music!

Lauren also convinced me with her solo set at the Country 2 Country 2019 in London.

 

Lauren Jenkins – Tour 2019

As part of the Sound of Nashville series, which already brought artists like Lindsay Ell or Twinnie to Germany, Lauren Jenkins will have four gigs in Germany. The one in Cologne is headlined by Jillian Jacqueline only, the other gigs are with Jacqueline and Austin Jenckes:

Mo 09.09.2019 Cologne, YUCA Club
Tu 10.09.2019 Berlin, Franzz
We 11.09.2019 Munich, Backstage
Th 12.09.2019 Hamburg, Indra Club 69

 

Lauren Jenkins – No Saint – Amazon.de

Here are links to Amazon.de, where you can (pre-)order the album.

 

More About Lauren Jenkins

Here are all other Flyctory.com postings related to the US country artist Lauren Jenkins:

Flyctory.com Country Music Reviews

Here are reviews of all country music albums and EPs I reviewed earlier on the website:

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures: Artist support material

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