Anna Graves’ America’s Greatest Burnout Is the Soundtrack to Surviving Your Twenties

Review by Lauren Page | @LiveWithLP

When I sat down with Anna Graves in London earlier this summer, there was one thing she said about her debut album that stuck with me: America’s Greatest Burnout was the story of her twenties.

The mistakes, the heartbreak, the people, the growing up and, ultimately, figuring out who Anna Graves actually is. Well, the wait is finally over - and what a first record this is.

From the dreamy opening moments of title track America’s Greatest Burnout, Anna sets the scene perfectly. There’s a warmth to it that immediately pulls you into her world; the kind of song that belongs on a long drive with the windows down and nowhere particularly urgent to be.

But underneath that beautiful, laid-back Americana sound is the real heart of this album. This isn't twelve songs simply thrown together for a debut. It genuinely feels like a timeline.

Across Damn In Love, Hollow Bones, Goldmine and Ashes & Smoke, Graves moves effortlessly between country, folk and pop without ever sounding like she's trying to fit neatly into any of them. That's perhaps what makes her music so easy to fall in love with. There's something wonderfully timeless about it.

And then there's Two Faced. Anyone who knows me knows I've been waiting for this one.

It was my standout when I first heard the record, and months later, it still is.

When we spoke in London, Anna told me the song came from experiencing a relationship where she trusted somebody completely, only for them to turn their back on her.

She described songwriting as therapy and said that every time she sings Two Faced, she feels stronger.

Knowing the story somehow makes an already brilliant Americana song hit even harder.

It's also exactly what I love about the genre.

Give a folk and country songwriter heartbreak, betrayal or one questionable life decision and somehow they'll hand you back a three-minute song that makes you feel like they've been reading your diary.

But America’s Greatest Burnout isn't a sad record. That's important.

For all the heartbreak running through it, there is an enormous amount of hope here too. Songs like Burn On feel resilient, while Minnesota brings us back to the place that has shaped so much of Anna's identity and songwriting.

By the time we reach the latter stages of the album, it feels like we're listening to someone who has been through the chaos and come out the other side knowing herself a little better.

That's why this debut works so well.

Anna isn't pretending to have everything figured out. Instead, she's created a record about the messy bit in between - trusting the wrong people, chasing dreams, burning out, going home, falling in love, losing things and finding yourself again.

I've made absolutely no secret of how much I love Anna Graves' music, so perhaps I'm slightly biased here, but America’s Greatest Burnout is an absolute belter of a debut.

Back in London, I wrote that this felt like the beginning of something really special.

Now we've got the full record? I'm standing by it.

America’s Greatest Burn Out by Anna Graves is out now