There aren’t very many artists interested in staying true to pure country aesthetics anymore, but that isn’t stopping young songbird Xolex from breaking down some of the most incredibly virginal country melodies with ease and swagger in her new single “Ain’t Buyin’ It.” Xolex’s vocal style comes from the old school nightclub aesthetic for certain, and when it’s put before the neo-synthetic backdrop that it’s afforded in “Ain’t Buyin’ It,” it takes on a hybrid pop hue that I haven’t been able to get enough of since first coming across this song just last week. To put it as simply as I can, it’s a fantastic way of getting to know this artist and a wonderfully different take on how we should be making country in the 21st century.
I’m getting a heavy throwback concept to the style of the hook in this song, but there’s nothing about “Ain’t Buyin’ It” that I would call straight-derivative of anything in the past. There’s too much heart in the lyrics for me to take them as being anything less than honest, endearing diary entries taken straight from within, and though the beat lags behind the mic, its strutting tempo is perhaps who colorizes the words here more than anything else possibly could have. It’s got moments of feeling a little artsy, even for a modern country song, but that could be what makes this new cut from Xolex the smashing homerun that it is – especially when you compare it to the lukewarm country regularly popping up on the FM dial today.
Cosmetically speaking, there’s an alternative edginess to the mix that I like, and it bears similarities to some of the crossover Americana that’s been making some waves in the underground over the spring. The duality in Xolex’s songwriting is brilliant all by itself, but I think we get a little more out of it when we’re able to appreciate it through the lens of a premium production technique, as was employed in this instance. It’s better to avoid skimping on quality whenever you can afford to go with something sublime and a bit cerebral, and in this sense I think Xolex was smart in how she saw “Ain’t Buyin’ It” produced.
I don’t often go for this style of country music, but with a voice like Xolex’s, I would have to be crazy to stay away from “Ain’t Buyin’ It” this season. Country fans really can’t go wrong with any part of this track, and while its experimental aspects are going to keep some of the squares away, there’s enough of a mainstream appeal to these melodies to warrant a lot of interest across the indie spectrum this month. 2023 is a year unlike any other we’ve collectively experienced in this lifetime, and though trying to predict what it’s going to happen next is impossible, this soundtrack being created by Xolex provides us a little of the much-needed consistency country music’s greatest players are asked to create in times like these.
Chadwick Easton