Ingrid Andress
is a thoroughly modern pop star, one who disregards the boundaries separating genres...or formats, for that matter.
Good Person
is technically
Andress
' first full-length album, arriving on the heels of
Lady Like
, the 2020 debut EP that was later expanded into a deluxe edition the length of an album -- an album like
, for instance. The expanded version of
gave
room to demonstrate that she's far from a conventional country singer, finding space for a cover of
Charli XCX
's "Boys" and a song that interpolated
the Beach Boys
' day-drinking standard "Kokomo." From there,
pivots into a provocative pop album where a guest appearance by
Sam Hunt
on the finale, "Wishful Drinking," offers a reminder that
is nominally a country singer. The rest of
hardly sounds like country -- the smooth digital gloss camouflages any lingering steel guitar or other rustic instrumentation -- but
has absorbed the fundamentals of country songwriting, which means that all her songs have sturdy, melodic bones. She fleshes out her tunes with lots of electronic flair, relying on pitch-shifted vocals and seamless overdub, studio tricks that allow such moments of quiet reflection like "Talk" to sound like
Lorde
and give the hooks on "How Honest Do You Want Me to Be?" a retro-'80s sheen. If
doesn't delve into new territory on
, it's only because she's dedicating herself to flawlessly executing the blueprint she established on
, winding up with a glassy, amorphous pop album that shifts through styles while she remains firmly, compellingly at the center. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine