Carving Canyons

Released in 2022, Carving Canyons represents a significant emotional milestone in Lissie's discography, written in the aftermath of a painful breakup and during a period of intense isolation on her Iowa farm. Sonically, it serves as a bridge between her earlier indie-folk roots and a more polished, expansive Americana-pop sound reminiscent of the Laurel Canyon era. The album was co-written with a variety of Nashville-based songwriters, which contributed to its melodic precision and layered vocal arrangements. Critics, including those at AllMusic, noted the album's maturity and the way it utilizes Lissie's powerhouse vocals to navigate complex emotional terrain without falling into cliché. It stands out in her catalog for its cohesive thematic focus on the transformative power of grief and its lush, atmospheric production that favors depth and texture over the raw, stripped-back approach of some of her previous work.