Likewise, her music sounds like the kind of earthy Americana that could have emerged from any of the last five decades. Both her vocal efficacy and reverential know-how have been and remain a testament to the uncommon maturity of her skill set.

But if anything was holding the Shawnee native back, it was her aversion to lyrical introspection. Prior to Kid Face, most of her songs were dewy-eyed, anecdotal accounts devoid of the brooding vulnerability that both her voice and timbre suggested, as if she were dying to reveal something but just couldn’t muster the courage.

Finally, with her third LP, Crain has taken an emboldened leap forward with her songwriting, proving that she has the lyrical acumen to match her other, more refined talents.

If there’s a quibble to be made here, it’s that, musically, the album is largely risk-free. Most of these songs are fairly conventional in arrangements and tone, with an inoffensive frame of reference that does little to distinguish Crain’s music from her countless contemporaries.

But what Kid Face lacks in compositional brass, it redeems in barefaced poetry.

And it’s becoming increasingly clear that while she may look childlike on the outside, Crain continues to blossom from within. —Zach Hale

Hey! Read This:
• Samantha Crain interview