According to a headline, the most popular song in 2026 so far is a country song- ‘Choosing Texas,’ by Ella Langley, a young performer who I am pleasantly surprised is enduring. Excuse me, you look like you love me was very charming, and this new one- and most of her stuff now that I’ve been actively listening to it- has that same haunting mainstream quality to it I haven’t heard in a very long time.
There is something very soothing about it. Nothing profound on its face, lyrically, but around the edges there is. It hearkens back to a spirit of Americana that should be retiring with older musicians like Dolly Parton and Allison Kraus. That prairie sunset with the dew on the grass. Moring coffee to the sound of wind and cicadas. A stable home, built on love and home cooking. A grandma that lives in an apartment attached to the back of the house. The energy of youth, healthy food, healthy soil. Budding romance under the stars between innocent wildflowers. Commitment, dedication. Heartbreak, devastation. The sad fact that not even all the scenic beauty and peace and careful living in the world can hold back the darker nature of life, and human beings. The betrayals. The awful luck of being in the paths of tornadoes. Yet together, it’s all beautiful, and it’s all worthwhile to experience.
There is something about the spirit of all of that in her voice and aura. Between the earnest boldness of the surface notes and the melancholy notes that follow. Apparently the song dethroned Taylor Swift, who is hit or miss with me- mostly miss. She has done a few things that I really like, or at least like parts of, but by and large her style of writing makes me want to vomit and never stop vomiting. It’s almost everything I hate about stereotypical millennials distilled- hyper self conscious, hyper self analytical, and hyper obsessed with presenting the “journey” between being self conscious and doing self analysis in a perfectionist overly-clever 10 dollar rhyme format. I mean there’s a time and a place even for that- but not in pop culture. Not in popular music. Come to PB for that stuff.
Ella’s lyrics, on the other hand, are more id. Less ego. More present in the experience of things, less trying to dissect them post mortem.
The pure unapologetic exaltation of being alive and Living that all creatures suffer and enjoy.
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