Real to Me: The Way I Feel Deluxe Edition (Big Machine Label Group, 2023)

Does lightning strike twice? Take one teen songbird with confessional writing chops, and add Scooter Braun/Scott Borchetta to handle the business. Throw in Nathan Chapman producing. This is the same team that gave us Taylor Swift's dizzying cannonball run from "Tim McGraw" to "All Too Well."

Callista Clark's "Real to Me" started as an EP in 2021, which is where most folks were introduced to the youth's cutesy single "It's Cause I Am," which hit number 20. Clark reassures her thickheaded boyfriend that it's perfectly natural he's stumped by her many complex feelings.

The team went back and grafted a whole new (better) EP onto the first, and"Real to Me" has been tinkered to its fullest expression as a Deluxe Edition. Two of the best songs are now in place: "Gave It Back Broken," a full-on traditional weeper of love lost; and "Worst Guy Ever." This takes a concept tried out by other female artists over the years (e.g., Beyonce's "If I Were a Boy"). What makes this one special is it considers yes, you could act selfishly and dishonestly, with a certain impunity that seem to be afforded rakish men. But who would want that? Clark, 19, concludes she'd be terrible at it. Two related tracks, "Brave Girl" and "Real to Me" are aimed at her peers ("Too old to cry and too young to drive/Smart enough to know better, too dumb not to try"). But the emotional current can move anybody if they have been there, too.

Vocally, you'd put Clark's voice more with the gentler instruments of the orchestra (French horns?). It's not a booming powerhouse, but her training in the church choir comes through. She can tap into a feeling and ride it home.

The Deluxe Edition would have been rich enough without the alternate versions of tracks (the already slow tempo of "Gave It Back Broken" doesn't yield any new revelation with a slower one). So while Clark's handlers have both replicated and added to a formula, this isn't the second coming of anybody else. It is a young adult who can relay and bring us into the way she feels, though, and that's special enough.