In his new self-titled album, Oklahoma singer-songwriter Zach Bryan lays his deepest thoughts inside the list of 16 tracks. From romance to experiences in life, the 27-year-old shows how he is only human with feelings buried within.
Engaging with the musical influences of his Oklahoma roots, Zach delves into his country-folk genre, where the lyrics in each track explore honesty and truth, which makes it more inspiring and relatable to listeners.
Uniquely starting the album, narrating a poem called ‘Fear and Friday’s’, travels in a melancholy atmosphere, asking why someone won’t love him, in the lyrics of ‘Won’t you get angry at me, say you love me again?/I got a fear dear, that it’s a Friday spark/You only love me like you mean it when it’s after dark‘. Already introducing the track and electric guitar composition, the album acknowledges that this will go through a journey of powerful emotions which listeners can somehow relate to in one way or another.
“I’ve learned that every waking moment is enough, and excess never leads to better things. It only piles and piles upon things that are already abundantly in front of you.” – Fear and Friday’s (Poem)
Zach Bryan
The singer brings exposure to the realities of life that make us more robust at the end. It is one of the likes of Zach Bryan’s take on music, showing that there are brutal truths that face us, and sometimes we have to sit back and reflect on it, leading us to think of how far we can experience in life and how many battles we put into moments that eat up at us. Songs such as ‘Overtime‘ and ‘East Side Of Sorrow‘ deliver the message of realising that life isn’t for the weak and that there are a variety of barriers we must break to start enjoying life.
Despite some tracks such as, ‘Overtime‘, creating a joyful melody with the soft guitar strings and beautiful trumpets, the words express anxious thoughts that the singer may have faced throughout his life, describing how people thought he could not do things he did. Another song which we can all relate to with Zach’s empowering words of emotion and wisdom. ‘They told me that I couldn’t and I shouldn’t еven try/Ever since I was child, been workin’ for a while, overtime‘
A few of the new songs have been previewed live or on social media and have already become sing-along fan favourites in concert. Among them is the anthemic “Overtime,” with its uplifting energy and sweeping chorus. The 27-year-old Navy vet also recently shared a snippet of “Spotless,” a heartfelt collaboration with alt-folk legends The Lumineers. “I ain’t spotless, neither is you,” Bryan and Lumineers frontman Wesley Schultz sing, “But once in my life I’m gonna see it through.”
With the album released for some time, it has already gained a quick liking by listeners, resulting in being in the top Billboard 200 chart. Following on from his previous 2022 album, ‘American Heartbreak’, Zach continues to develop the feelings of raw emotion which draw people to his music, giving him a following of 2.9 million on Instagram.
The self-titled album is a mixture of chilled country and cheery music with a beautiful construction of sweet-sounding musical melodies, containing empowering messages of reflection on life, reminiscing memories and looking forward in life.
The album also boasts appearances from country superstar Kacey Musgraves on album highlight “I Remember Everything,” as well as features from Sierra Ferrell on “Holy Roller” and The War and Treaty on “Hey Driver.” Other standout tracks, which capture Bryan’s honest and relatable storytelling and poignant delivery, are “El Dorado,” “Tourniquet,” and album-closer “Oklahoma Son.”
Why not listen to Zach Bryan’s new album now?