Ok Cowgirl "Rhinestone Cowgirl"
From American Highways: “
Summer is all about good driving music. And even as we’re stretching out the last couple of weeks of August before Labor Day lands with a thud, there’s still time to squeeze in a good road trip or two. Brooklyn-based band Ok Cowgirl’s second LP, Rhinestone Cowgirl, is a departure from their first album, last year’s Couldn’t Save Us From My Gut. While those oft-shoegazey songs felt at home on a walk through New York’s hippest outer borough, Rhinestone Cowgirl is a full-trottle rock record, road-ready to see the rest of America with unglazed eyes.
One of the best reasons to hit the road is a chance to mentally parse through life choices, and Rhinestone Cowgirl leads off with one hell of a declaration – “Rock N Roll Ruined My Life.” The band’s songwriter and frontwoman, Leah Lavigne, takes a moment to catalog all the upheaval caused by her chosen profession – “Tell me that I’m stuck chasing gloryThat will only chew me up and disappoint.” But once the big guitars kick in (courtesy of Lavigne and bandmates Jacob Savinsky, John Miller, Ryan Work and co-producer Alex Farrar), she’s ready to remind herself that all she needs is a few friends and her fellow musicians to believe in her – “Life will break our hearts and take our pride/Hold on to the ones that see you right.” While the next track, “Wished I Could Be,” recalls those dreamier moments from Couldn’t Save Us, this album’s third song, the super-riffy “God Made A Farmer,” is as heartland rock as it gets. The tangy anthem honors not just farmers, but office workers, bartenders, and anyone else toiling hard for far too little reward. Think of it as a song Taylor Sheridan might write if he weren’t so afraid of big cities and chose to acknowledge workers of all stripes – “When the game is rigged/None of us really win/So babe laugh a good laugh /Carve your own path.”
While Rhinestone Cowgirl isn’t exactly an exercise in optimism, it finds meaning in accepting reality and making the best of the mess that’s left. The juxtaposition of “Winner” and “Prepared to Lose” toward the end of the record highlights this. The latter is a jangly alt-pop tune that wryly recognizes the pain that life brings – “Thousand ways to live, thousand ways to go/Thank god we just die once,” while “Winner” begins with a pensive catalog of questions before opening up to acknowledge that, sometimes, mere survival is the goal – “You’re a winner/ ‘cause you’ve always had to fight/For what’s been given to so many.” Circling back to “”Rock N Roll Ruined My Life,” it’s that fight that’s gotten Lavigne and Ok Cowgirl out of Brooklyn clubs and onto the road – “They might see me just as a failed singer/But I’ve seen things that they will never know.” Leaving home – and comfort – is the only way to see these things. Ok Cowgirl is giving you both the soundtrack and the reason to do it.