Full Circle

Loretta Lynn’s work grows richer and more powerful with age. Six decades and fiftysomething albums into her career comes the lucid, rootsy <i>Full Circle</i>, her first since 2004’s Jack White–produced <i>Van Lear Rose</i>. Opening with a new gloss on Lynn’s very first song (“Whispering Sea”) and walking back through highlights of her career (“My Secret Love”) with detours through bluegrass and folk standards (“Black Jack David,” “In the Pines”), the most remarkable thing about <i>Full Circle</i> isn’t how long Lynn has been singing but how vibrant she still sounds.