One of Gentry’s two masterpieces – Patchwork, from 1971, is her other one – The Delta Sweete is a loosely conceived concept album, of sorts, about life in Chickasaw County. It saw her grab tightly the reins of her music, even more so than on her debut Ode to Billie Joe, and the resulting album has a grand sweep to it, and a bravery in its storytelling that allows it both to be direct (the preacher oratory of “Sermon”) and oblique (the mysteries behind “Penduli Pendulum”). But core to The Delta Sweete, perhaps, is the fragility of everyday life, and of the relationships and loves that bind us to place, and that inform our ongoing longings. Gentry’s vocal performances here are staggering, populating the songs with a breadth of characterisation; the songs are uniformly strong; the arrangements coax further emotional nuance from Gentry’s originals, and bed her smart choice of covers down neatly with Gentry’s own writing. Its surface is baroque country pop, but its depths are devastating in their understanding of the human spirit.

– Jon Dale