Ingrid Andress is one of Country Music’s rising stars. The 28 year old from Michigan made a great start to her career, with her 2019 album release ‘More Hearts Than Mine’ reaching number 12 on the US country songs list.

Ingrid cites the Dixie Chicks as her inspiration, but has a passion for writing her own music, which is great to hear from a new artist. She has already written for other artists and in particular has broken down some of the barriers that many female songwriters have when talking about their sexuality and taking away the stigma of talking about relationships. This is certainly evident in ‘Boys’ that she wrote in collaboration for Charli XCX in 2017. 

Country music has included other genres into recent productions which has helped it become more popular around the world. When ‘Life of the Party’ starts, you feel that this could be a mixture of influences that have led to the piano start. However, once the vocal kicks in, it’s clear which stable Ingrid Andress comes from, with lap steel sitting clearly in the mix and the vocal transitions, you know that you’re hearing the new sound coming out from Nashville. Ingrid Andress has a smooth clear voice that has a huge amount of power behind it and can go from a pop sound, to a more country styled melody. One thing is for sure, ‘Life of the Party’ is designed to be a pop song, you’ll know this because you won’t stop singing along with it. Strangely, even before you know the song you can sing the chorus, which is certainly the sign of a good pop song. The lyrics repeat nicely to allow you to feel confident with what line to sing and the catchy chorus is certainly going to make this a very popular release this week. 

I think that due to the well deserved rise in popularity, Ingrid Andress will be finding herself at more upcoming high profile parties, with lots of people loving her because of who she has become. This song talks about the unseen struggles that these artists who probably on the surface have everything are working through. Whilst this song seems to be about the person coming out of their shell, post relationship breakup, and this is on the surface a good thing, the lyrics suggest a darker side ‘at least it’s what I tell myself’ might give us a clue that there is more to this than just being the life and soul of the party. You don’t see everything with celebrities and with the extra pressure of social media and the day to day struggles of being a sought after artist, 'Life of the Party’ raises some important concepts for listeners to think about, but at the same time is a song that will gain Ingrid Andress more and more attention for being a relevant, well written and catchy tune.

 Country    Pop 

Author: Phil Arnold

Phil Arnold is a musician, producer and music reviewer from Devon, in the South West of England. Whilst not writing music reviews, Phil also writes and records under the name of Ugbrooke.