Even if you are not a huge fan of country music or the genre in general, this new self-titled album by Zach Bryan is a great way to get into the countryside.  After listening to the album, it is similar to his others but it does have its own unique feel and taste. The music draws you in and makes you feel like you are in the South without giving a ‘classic’ or ‘70s’ style country. It’s acoustic, raw and it’s extremely full of emotions and self reflection. I’d say it even foreshadows a new lover or a past one. It gives off the vibe of joyriding at sunset with the truck’s windows down. It also has a feeling of sorrow or that feeling you get when you are falling in love.

With that being said, “Zach Bryan’’ came out August 25th of this year, making the summer’s end not feel as saddening but rather having it flow nicely into the fall. This is an all year round album. It starts off with a poem of self reflection from his last album “American Heartbreak,” leaving fans of Bryan reminiscent of the previous album.

I feel as if the self-titled album could have come off stronger, though it is full of emotion. The singles released prior to the album release became immensely popular. The album became increasingly popular on TikTok and Instagram where it was able to reach many different audiences. It hasn’t been as popular as his past music but most of these single releases have made the Spotify top five for the artists. The album features other solo artists and bigger bands such as The Lumineers, The War and Treaty, and two solo artists, Kacey Musgraves and Sierra Ferrell.

Taking that into consideration, in the future I’d like to see Bryan pair up with Kacey Musgraves again; their voices proved to pair beautifully together. They both put in a good shared amount of emotion without it being overdone. “I Remember Everything.” is very youthful. It is Track 10 on the album and is definitely a song I can be found playing on repeat. It has been said to be about a “past summer’s romance” as Rolling Stone suggests. It seems as if the pair the song is referring to is about how people fall in and out of love and how relationships are changing due to the effects of alcohol.

I wish the song, “Spotless,” was just better in every aspect. It seems like it had been a bottom-of-the-barrel type of song. Overall overlooked. With the song only being around 2 minutes and 45 seconds long. there isn’t much to work with. Bryan should have let the Lumineers give more towards the actual lyric writing. Instead of just repeating the same line of, “I ain’t spotless, Neither is you.” It is very bland.