Jeff's Best of 2025 - #9: Kathleen Edwards - Billionaire

Back before Kathleen Edwards took some time away from music to run a coffee shop, she had a song called "Empty Threat," with a chorus that threatened a move to America. Her well-received return to music in 2022 was cathartic in its own way, but Billionaire is the alt-country favorite following through on that threat with great results.

Billionaire tells a much different story than what she's given us in the past. "Say Goodbye, Tell No One" feels like a confession, "Need a Ride" a way to grapple with one's new home and all the contradictions that come along with it, and "FLA" alongside the title track an admittance that she's come a long way from the Canadian hockey-loving singer-songwriter we all fell in love with 20-odd years ago. This is not damning it with faint praise; Billionaire is perhaps her best record since Asking for Flowers and I say that as someone who believes she hasn't even come close to offering a bad effort. It is, however, optimistic and different in a way that I didn't expect, and I'm just as much happy for her as I am happy that her music remains as essential as ever.

Songs of note: "Save Your Soul," "Say Goodbye, Tell No One," "Billionaire," "Need a Ride"