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Sep 12, 2023You don’t emerge from the LP with a sense of linear narrative. Across 16 songs, relationships fail and prosper and then fail again; hope deteriorates and grows, only to deteriorate again. What Zach Bryan is is a moving portrait of life’s knottiest, in-between moments.
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Sep 12, 2023Zach Bryan’s up-close realism means that this album is hardly an escape from those cruelties, but Bryan’s careful presentation of his obvious songwriting talents makes it a gripping listen.
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Sep 12, 2023Bryan does demand that his audience lean into the songs to discern their meaning; he gives a hint of a hook, enough to coax a second listen to unpack all the sorrows racing around in his head. Over the course of a triple album, this approach gets monochromatic, but Zach Bryan is tighter than American Heartbreak not only holistically but in its individual parts.
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Sep 12, 2023As he expands his sound beyond genre confines, he can sell a multi-part epic like “Jake’s Piano - Long Island” and a complexly orchestrated slow-burner like “Ticking.” But he doesn’t yet have the same range in his writing, lyrically or melodically.