Finally free from Kenny Chesney…

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Katherine St Asaph: Let us pause a moment and consider the once-ubiquity of folk-rock — Britney started out wanting to be Sheryl Crow! — and its allowing women pulsars of careers; and how it’s now perhaps the genre most impervious to revival. Country would seem the most likely crowd to revive it, but Crow, Melissa Etheridge et al always had an uneasy relationship to Nashville and nothing has changed. Potter’s voice is earnestly searing if overproduced, and the stomp is solid. I may be overrating this on pure indignance.
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Alfred Soto: The distortions and organ peals recall Sheryl Crow’s inaugural self-produced period: giddy with freedom, tickled by the possibility of coaxing cool sounds out of instruments. The result, however, is closer to Tom Waits at a variety show.
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Thomas Inskeep: Potter’s Janis Joplin-esque voice gives me Sheryl Crow vibes — and she could likely have Crow’s ’90s/’00s career if she wanted (she’s already had bigger country hits than Crow, thanks to a couple of duets with Kenny Chesney) — but the handclappiness of “Empty Heart” is clearly going more for the Adult Top 40 airplay of today. The gospel choir makes the whole thing sound pretty fake. I have a feeling that by trying to serve so many different format masters, Potter will end up hitting on none of ’em.
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Megan Harrington: The appeal of a voice like Grace Potter’s is usually to tell heavy stories, to sing pain. And a song called “Empty Heart” certainly has the potential to be a sad, sopping ballad, but Potter steers it elsewhere. Instead it’s bubbly and smiling, eventually building to a cheerful, gospel-styled climax. The appeal of a voice like Potter’s then is that it’s not just another rock trope, but a tool she uses to carve her own sound. 
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Brad Shoup: Bone-dry production with Cat Stevens marrow and some Primal Scream to close the joint. It’s no “Stompa,” but not for lack of stomping. 
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Jonathan Bogart: I was okay with its deeply unfashionable late-60s early-70s white country-fried soul until the “Hey Jude” choir kicked in.
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Micha Cavaseno: The first time I heard Grace Potter was in an episode of All My Children, like maybe 7 to 8 years ago? Her and the Nocturnals song “Apologies” was being synced to Kendall crying about something or another, maybe getting a new heart from her then dead test tube baby brother, or cheating on her husband, or sending her mother to jail. Soaps are wild. And unfortunately Grace Potter is not, despite how bluesy and full of swagger her voice gets. Every time she writes a song, she aims for Janis Joplin in some vehicle but ends up with Melissa Etheridge opener. She has always been so eager to get trapped in cliché arrangements that result in someone doing their best in bad tunes. “Empty Heart” is no different because this song could be done right, but it’s a dull stomp-along and when those gospel choirs come in I’m ready to chuck the earphones into the sea. It’s been nearly a decade now and some modicum of success is coming to Grace Potter, but it’s less the realization of her ideas and more just trying to scrape by in a world that isn’t really looking for Grace Potters anymore.
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