Ella Langley has quickly become one of the most popular country singers already in her relatively short career. Langley just released her sophomore album “Dandelion,” an 18-track, 55-minute album. She co-produced this album with Miranda Lambert and Ben West. This is Langley’s first album since 2024, when she released her debut full-length studio album, “Hungover,” and the deluxe edition, “Still Hungover,” featuring five more tracks than the original. Her music career started in 2017 when she wrote and released her song “Clear the Clouds.” Since her music debut, she has written or sung in 88 songs, according to Genius. This album features her typical twangy and beautiful vocals and lyrics about common themes in her life and others’ lives.
Most of my favorite songs on this album were, coincidentally, tracks that were released as singles before the album’s official release. If asked, I would say my top three songs are “Dandelion,” “Choosin’ Texas” and “I Gotta Quit.” I really enjoy the song “Dandelion,” which was released as a single about three months before the album was released in whole. Langley sings about how she is more free-spirited: “Born to live free, ridin’ on a breeze.” Another favorite of mine, “Choosin’ Texas,” is another track that was released as a single at the same time as “Dandelion” before the album came out. It’s catchy and has extremely sing-a-longable lyrics and a great beat. This song was an instant hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for at least four consecutive weeks in February. Finally, “I Gotta Quit,” although it is one of the shorter songs on this album, it did make my top three. This song was very upbeat and had great lyrics that are fun to sing along to. My only complaint about this song is that I wish it were a bit longer.
A few of my honorary mentions would be “Bottom Of My Boots,” “Be Her” and “You & Me Time.” I really enjoyed “Be Her,” but it’s a song I would skip the last minute of. That being said, this song stands out to me primarily because of the lyrics. Langley talks about wanting to be someone else with the lyrics, “I just wanna be her so bad, it hurts so bad, it hurts so.” These lyrics are very relatable for most people, but they are repeated too much in this song. “You & Me Time” was another one of my favorites on this album. It’s just a simple, sweet, country love song about wishing she had more time with her partner.
The first track on this album is “Froggy Went A Courtin’ -Intro” and the last track “Froggy Went A Courtin’ – Outro” are, as the names suggest, a continuation of each other, which I thought was a very fun way to start and end the album. These songs are Langley’s version of the folk nursery rhyme “Froggy Went A Courtin’,” which she said is one of the first songs she learned how to sing, so it has a cute tie to her personal life.
One song I thought was just mediocre was the fourth track titled “We Know Us.” In this track Langley talks about knowing that she and an ex are better apart but wanting the relationship to work out even though they know better. This song was not bad by any means but it definitely was not a stand out and felt very similar to a lot of songs out there. Following, the fifth song on this album, “Low Lights” was a more mellow song but I really enjoy the beat and melody more than the lyrics. Overall, this track would be easy to sing-a-long to and could be a fun karaoke song.
Langley has partnered with stars in country music and in other genres in her past. She partnered with Riley Green on her song “you look like you love me,” “Hell at night” with BigXthaPlug and with Hardy on “Never Met Anyone Like You.” On this album, Langley partnered with Miranda Lambert on the song “Butterfly Season,” the 16th track on the album. I enjoyed their voices together, and I thought they meshed very nicely. I really liked the lyrics and the overall message of the song, which is about new dreams and evolving as a person with butterflies as the metaphor. They sing “It’s butterfly season, I’m finding my wings, a good time for leaving behind the old me.”
Langley also, in a way, collaborated with the late country star Kitty Wells. She remade Wells “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” and did a great job giving the original 1952 version justice, making it another one of my favorite songs on the album.
I really enjoyed most of the tracks on this album and all of Langley’s vocals. I would recommend this album to anyone who likes older, 70s and 80s country music and sound and if you like Lainey Wilson, Shania Twain or Megan Moroney.
“Dandelion:” ★★★★★
