“We Make Patterns So They Don’t Make Us” — A Review of Kelsea Ballerini’s New Album By Monroe Harris

After a year of career record highs trailed by the personal lows of a public divorce, Kelsea Ballerini is back to unpack the emotional baggage with the highly anticipated release of her fifth studio album, Patterns. 

Patterns represents personal growth, womanhood, being loved after heartbreak, and undoing the patterns that no longer serve you. For Ballerini, it’s an autobiographical record that takes listeners on her journey of questioning herself and everything in her life, transitioning into a resolution of personal triumph.

Photo via @kelseaballerini on Instagram

The album was written and produced by an all-women team of industry heavyweights, including Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town, Hillary Lindsey (renowned for co-writing hits with Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Taylor Swift), and Jessie Jo Dillon, who recently won Songwriter of the Year at the Country Music Awards. This lineup alone speaks to the talent behind Patterns.

There is a sonic shift in the production that is completely foreign to Ballerini’s traditional sound, yet she’s never sounded more like herself. She describes the album as “untouched by Nashville.” Among her proudest achievements is collaborating with Alysa Vanderheym, who makes her debut as an album producer. With fewer than five women actively producing country music records in Nashville, Patterns is already a milestone.

One of the first singles, “Sorry Mom,” offers a fresh perspective uncommon in mainstream music, standing out in a year dominated by massive pop acts from artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, and Chappell Roan. The song is inspired by how Ballerini’s relationship with her mother has evolved from “mother-to-daughter, to woman-to-woman.” It captures her signature conversational tone on intimate topics that is fingerprinted all throughout her discography. 

Photo via @kelseaballerini on Instagram

For a younger listener, Ballerini feels like an older, wiser version of yourself, talking out your hopes and fears with you in the backseat of a car after a night out or over your best friend’s dining room table. As a teenager, I sunk into her music for that sense of comfort—and the truth is I still do.

“First Rodeo” stands out as a raw, unfiltered confession, with the line, “Take my heart but take it slow, this ain’t my first rodeo,” cutting deeply in the context of her publicly painful split from Australian country singer Morgan Evans. There’s a plea in her honesty that resonates deeply with anyone who has ever been burned by love before. The divorce from Evans also inspired her Grammy-nominated EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, lauded for “unvarnished vulnerability” in a review by Billboard.

Photo via kelseaballerini.com 

We see similar emotional appeals on tracks like “How Much Do You Love Me” and “Beg For Your Love” that make them feel like sister songs. Lines such as “If you ever got over it, could you ever get over it?” and “Asking you to say it back, it shouldn’t have to be like that” reveal the vulnerability of her risking her heart again. Her voice carries a weariness, suggesting she knows what is at stake this time around.

Despite the heavier tone that lingers on Patterns, rest assured the upbeat girlish country charm that initially made the Knoxville, Tennessee native so successful can still be found alive and well. Songs like “Baggage” and “WAIT!” are where that charm shines.

Photo via @kelseaballerini on Instagram

“WAIT!” is one of my favorite tracks on the album, down to the detail of lettering in the song title. To me, this is Ballerini at her best–an earworm chorus filled with lines of shouts, witty rhymes and clever turns of phrase. The lyric “I’m codependent with my independence” rolls off the tongue while “Now you're packing up your T-shirts, but I want 'em in the drawer / Can't get myself to say, ‘Stay,’ before you're out the door” packs a bitey punch in every syllable. 

Throughout Patterns, the storytelling remains concise without ever losing the heartbeat. Ballerini credits songwriter Hillary Lindsey for teaching her that, showing her how storytelling should never overshadow the sentiment. 

And even though the act of pouring her heart out to the public is still terrifying, that candidness is what she says keeps the “articulate truth” in her work. In an Apple Music Interview for the album, host Kelleigh Bannen noted how Ballerini places herself “so undeniably in the crosshairs” of her own writing. This deliberate choice reinforces her devotion to authenticity.

In the end, Patterns is a body of work that serves as a revelation. After rolling up the welcome mat of her past, it sounds like Kelsea Ballerini is finally coming home again–for good. Except this time, she’s coming home to herself.