Album Review: Young in All the Wrong Ways by Sara Watkins

Don't read too much into the title of Young in All the Wrong Ways, Sara Watkins' third solo album. Certainly, the Nickel Creek singer/violinist isn't necessarily acting deliberately youthful here -- the record isn't as brightly pop as its 2012 predecessor, Sun Midnight Sun -- but that doesn't mean that bluegrass factors heavily into the equation either. Young in All the Wrong Ways does make feints to roots music -- if it weren't for the stylishly sculpted fuzz guitar, "The Truth Won't Set Us Free" could be suited for a honky tonk hardwood floor, while "One Last Time" contains some fleet-fingered picking -- but the record feels settled and assured as it leans into its maturation.

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At this point in the history of pop music, the breakup album could well be a genre unto itself. So prolific are songs and albums dealing with the dissolution of relationships of all types that it has virtually become something of a rite of passage for any singer-songwriter worth their salt. Taylor Swift, the current reigning queen of such things, almost seems to embark on a relationship solely in the hopes of it failing and thus providing just that much more material for her to take to the top of the charts.

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