I’m sitting here waiting for a verse from China that never comes.
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[6.89]
Anthony Easton: Her voice is one of the strongest that has come out of Nashville, and her EP is as or more exciting than Sam Hunt’s last year. The central metaphor has been done, but the care that she works the metaphor — refusing to push anything, on the right edge of plodding — is such a pretty piece of crewel work.
[9]
Alfred Soto: Each pinprick of a narrative detail gets its melodic emphasis, particularly in the second verse, and while these days programmers will shunt this example of songcraft to “Americana” it deserves better.
[7]
Micha Cavaseno: Its a pretty simple ballad, and works really well at conveying attachment and tragedy without ever making it seem like its all about obsessing over the other. There’s a thing of loyalty, about refusing to give up on someone despite the overwhelming and perhaps obvious (nothing more obvious than impending death right?) failures at hand. No matter how foolhardy it seems, it’s touching to hear someone try to fill themselves up with that much pride and valor.
[7]
Iain Mew: Raw and suitably nightmarish, but I find myself thinking of it as a horror movie build to a development that never comes — the final twist of strings doesn’t quite do it.
[6]
Thomas Inskeep: I’m genuinely shocked this is racing up the U.S. country airplay chart, because to my ears this is fairly straight-up folk music: a voice, a lightly-picked acoustic guitar, some subtle strings. It’s pretty, it’s effective, and it’s kinda dull.
[5]
David Sheffieck: I wish something would bring some fire to this song; a more distinctive vocalist might be able to make it a showcase. As is, it’s a solid lyric delivered more like a gas leak than a spark.
[5]
Ramzi Awn: In “Burning House,” Cam brings music back to when Miranda Lambert sang about the house that built her, but with more restraint. The single’s arrangement is masterful, and the California native croons about the house that burned her with just the right amount of fire and ice.
[8]
Brad Shoup: The facts that 1) she fucked up and 2) they broke up really elevate this for me. A stately Mike Leander arrangement walks alongside her in a lucid dream, dreamt without too much sadness.
[7]
Edward Okulicz: The line “I’ve been sleepwalking too close to the fire” is about the only thing I don’t like about this song’s chorus. It feels like one too many iterations of words to do with burning and flames and such. The rest of the song is such a fine work of understated melancholy, and it feels a bit too much like dramatic poetry a second draft would have got rid of. The rest of the song reveals an artist who otherwise knows what to say and when to say nothing — as evidenced by that unresigned sigh of an ending. It’s an impressive start, and if her lyrics lag her ability to conjure a mood, they’ll catch up quick.
[8]