Where is the country? That's the question that screams out at me from this album. I love it, don't get me wrong. Bits of it sound like Plaskett even, perhaps in some parallel universe where he has propelled Mo Kenney to international mega-stardom. I think I just had this timeline in my head, though if an artist starting off as Nashville country and ending up on the top of a pop rainbow. This just seems straight into pop to me.

I know people get annoyed when Caitlin Rose gets referred to as "Americana," arguing it's more accurate simply to refer to her as a country artist. But Caitlin is surely waaaay more country than Taylor has ever been? So what is country music? Is it literally just including a line about pick up trucks, or naming a song after Tim McGraw? That seems like a very low bar for a genre of music to hit.

(oh FFS I have just realised that most of the songs are co-written with Liz Rose, Caitlin's mum. I now feel truly stupid. But I remain unconvinced that this invalidates my argument (and it's not an argument (more of a surprise)) altogether, I'm just surprised I didn't know.)

At this stage it's clearly a very American phenomenon - top 20 on Billboard, peaking at 81 in the UK. What is that these days, 300 albums? It's the country charts where it's hitting home though - a number one country chart hit with Our Song. So perhaps the broader question I need to ask myself, and Taylor needs to tell me, is: what is country music?

PS - weirdly the track that massively stood out for me on the first few lessons was A Perfectly Good Heart, which it turns out... isn't really on the album. Just a bonus track. Interesting. All the bonus tracks have a different (more pop?) vibe to them than the "main" album though, I think.