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COUNTRY
"Unglamorous"
Lori McKenna. Warner Bros. Nashville. 11 tracks.
Grade: B+

"Don't you know who I am, standing in your kitchen?" When country star Faith Hill posed that question on her 2005 album, "Fireflies," she sounded lonely but not quite forsaken: a heroine in a "housedress," asking or maybe praying for one last chance.

Warner Bros. Records (ENLARGE)
Warner Bros. Records Lori McKenna, 'a mother of five from Stoughton, Mass.,' works in the telltale details of domestic bliss gone awry in 'Unglamorous,' her fifth album.
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That question came from "Stealing Kisses," a song written by Lori McKenna, who had recorded it on her extraordinary 2004 album, "Bittertown." Whereas Hill can smuggle a hint of hope into even the bleakest lyric (that's part of what makes her a star), McKenna often uses her serrated voice to push her songs past disappointment into anger.

Buoyed by Hill's endorsement, McKenna — "a mother of five from Stoughton, Mass.," as she is invariably described — has become an unlikely country-music success story. Warner Bros. Nashville reissued "Bittertown" in 2005, and this summer she toured with Hill and her husband, Tim McGraw. Now comes "Unglamorous," McKenna's fifth album and also, in a sense, her country debut. It was produced by McGraw and country hit maker Byron Gallimore, and McGraw and Hill each sing backup on a song. The sound is noticeably sweeter, with strings and synthesizers, and so are the lyrics.

It turns out that McKenna's knack for aching melodies and telling details fits pretty well with mainstream country. The title track, which she wrote with Nashville songwriter Liz Rose, paints an affectionate portrait of domestic chaos: "No diamonds in our bathtub rings/ Peanut butter on everything."

Sometimes it sounds as if McKenna's voice has been slightly blunted by the warm arrangements and her gentler phrasing. Yet one of the best songs, "How to Survive," seems to change shape as she sings it. When you first hear the refrain — "We don't know nothing about nothing/ Except how to survive" — it sounds like a tribute to two people who still have a chance. But by the end it's clear they never did.

— Kelefa Sanneh, New York Times

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• Scandinavian dance-pop duo Junior Senior gets help from the B-52's Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson on "Hey Hey My My Yo Yo."

• Saxophonist Najee fills "Rising Sun" with his smooth jazz.

• Venerable British folk chanteuse Linda Thompson returns with "Versatile Heart."

• Louisiana rockers 12 Stones offer "Anthem for the Underdog."

COMING NEXT WEEK

• New albums from Cartel, Talib Kweli, M.I.A., Joe Nichols, the New Pornographers, Over the Rhine, Rilo Kiley, Josh Ritter, Swizz Beatz and Travis Tritt.

— Shane Harrison