When Kathleen Edwards released 2020’s excellent Total Freedom after nearly a decade’s pause in new music, it was like meeting an artist for the first time. Its follow-up, Billionaire, on the other hand, feels more like she never left. With Jason Isbell and Gena Johnson at the producing helm (and playing in the band), Billionaire captures the essence of Edwards’ spirited 2003 debut Failer. Billionaire is both lush and rough around the edges—Edwards at her scrappy best.
At her core, Edwards is rock and roll, and Billionaire feels like a gut-punch reminder of that. Blaring guitars and her clean, sharp voice cut through the bullshit on songs like the unsparing six-minute “Say Goodbye, Tell No One,” a searing kiss-off breakup anthem. “Here’s the truth wrapped up in a lie/I never cared, I never tried,” she sings in that cool, husky tone, reckoning with all the things that didn’t work in a relationship, with her signature, take-no-prisoners honesty.
