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\n\tElla Langley<\/a> was a merely promising young country star this time last year, riding the modest success of Hungover<\/em>, her solid LP debut. A twangy neo-trad country set branded with a knowing taste for nostalgia, with a twentysomething\u2019s smart-ass plainspokenness and just enough commercial sheen, it shone brightest on deep cuts (\u201cCowboy Friends,\u201d \u201cMonsters\u201d), notwithstanding the woozy charm of her closing-time hookup with Riley Green, \u201cYou Look Like You Love Me.\u201d She seemed like one of those artists destined for the trenches that divide the indie Americana scene and the king-making world of country radio.<\/p>\n \n\tThe narrative changed fast when \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas<\/a>\u201d dropped last fall. Her perfectly-turned co-write with Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, and Joybeth Taylor \u2014 an irresistibly and almost cheerfully woeful love-triangle lament \u2014 became the longest-running Number One ever by a woman country artist on Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Hot 100, Taylor Swift included. Langley also became the only woman to simultaneously top that chart and the two main country charts, and she\u2019s had a run on honky-tonk digital jukeboxes nationwide.<\/p>\n \n\tSuddenly, she\u2019s poster girl for something few thought possible \u2014 a commercial pink wave, if you will, of woman artists in the sexist world of big-box country music, akin to the one that\u2019s defined mainstream pop for years now. She\u2019s got strong company recently in Megan Moroney, Lainey Wilson, and Kacey Musgraves, whose forthcoming LP promises a return to country form. But if the expectations are a lot to put on the shoulders of a young artist, the weight seems weightless on Dandelion<\/em><\/a>, a sophomore set with perfect posture. It\u2019s anchored by \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas,\u201d of course, but Langley doesn\u2019t sweat trying to replicate it. Instead, she leans into her taste for tradition with a fresh color wheel of vintage influences. It could do for classic country style what artists like Laufey and Billie Eilish have done for post-WWII jazz-pop, right on time for WWIII.<\/p>\n