Take my soul, take my heart

Tear me apart

If I'm good for anything

It's all of this suffering

To you I'm just salvage

I ain't ran right in years

So drive me then gut me

Deceive and fuck me

Then disappear

"If you need me you can find me/ slightly out of control"

- Highway Boys, Zach Bryan

(Music Matters Media)

Before we dive into a whole new year with plenty of new music on the horizon, on this episode, we talk about our favorite projects of 2022. Listen as we discuss our honorable mentions list, and of course, our official top ten picks of the year. Find out who ultimately stole our hearts to take each of our number-one spots of 2022, and stay tuned for our next episode on our most anticipated albums of 2023!

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Man I love Zach Bryan

That’s it that’s the post

Zach Bryan - American Heartbreak (2022)

“someday I will come to my senses / stop sitting on fences in fear / and I will realize after all of this time / that someday was always just right here”

Here comes my 25 favourite rock/pop/r’n’b/hiphop/country albums of 2022.      

4. Zach Bryan – American Heartbreak

I had never listened to Bryan before. He’s a navy vet who has recorded a few albums without much noise. Then he had the balls to release a 34(!) song album, “American Heartbreak”, this year and it blew everything away. It’s like when Stephen Merritt released “69 Love Songs” in 1999, but in a totally different genre. “American Heartbreak” is a monumental album. I would not be surprised if in 20 years’ time it will be considered the greatest musical achievement of 2022. Not all 34 songs are great, but most of them are and a few will be classics. Some critic wrote that Bryan’s songs “take the shortest path from feeling to words”, and I think that is a good description. Roots, traditional country, americana, Bryan’s music is firmly rooted in an American tradition. He reminds me of a young Kris Kristofferson, and that is a very good thing.

Zach Bryan - American Heartbreak / Summertime Blues Country music has never been synonymous with “ambition,” but these days, a few more artists are popping up that have a sense of ambition in their music, including Zach Bryan. There’s a lot to be said about the Oklahoma-based singer-songwriter that’s only gotten a huge push of popularity and buzz within the last couple of years. It’s been more so earlier this year with the release of his major label debut (or his third overall album) American Heartbreak, but if that wasn’t enough, he also released an EP just a few weeks ago, entitled Summertime Blues. For some artists, the EP would be enough for a couple of years, but he dropped an album and an EP. To make matters even better, and more interesting, American Heartbreak is a very ambitious 34-song two-hour long triple album. It’s a very sprawling ambitious project that I didn’t listen to when it came out in May, but I’ve been wanting to listen to it, so I thought I’d check it out, especially where the new Nikki Lane album dropped last week. I wanted something to go along with it, and both American Heartbreak and Summertime Blues seemed perfect. I’ll be talking about both of these albums at the same time, as it doesn’t really make sense to review each project individually, mainly because they both have a similar sound. Bryan’s music falls into the Americana, folk, singer-songwriter, and country crossroads where all of those styles meet in the middle, versus being straightforward country or folk. That’s part of his appeal, I think; he’s not your average country singer, or even a folk singer, he can appeal to a lot of different kinds of people, and his music also has a somewhat timeless quality to it. Just look art the titles of the album and EP -- American Heartbreak and Summertime Blues. These titles just reek of classic Americana, especially with timeless sounds and themes. Both of which are what you’ll find on these records, including heartbreak, love, loss, grief, happiness, hatred, as well as the blues. To preface this review, as well as his work, a lot of the focus on these records are its lyrics, vocals, and overall themes. That’s what folk music mainly does, and that’s why I’ve never been super huge into that and Americana, simply for the fact that its instrumentation is usually very sparse, as well as not very energetic or interesting. I have to give Bryan some credit, though, there is a lot of energy on these records. Summertime Blues in particular is a nice half-hour energetic burst of this Americana / folk / country hybrid that he’s known for, and it expands on a lot of the themes from American Heartbreak. I’ll talk about the themes, as well as his use of storytelling later on, but I wanted to just give my general thoughts on both of these records. Summertime Blues, like I said, is a half-hour EP that is more or less on the folk / Americana / country spectrum, and it feels like a collection of b-sides from American Heartbreak, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. American Heartbreak, however, is a very long, sprawling, oftentimes intimate and personal record that deals with a lot of heavy themes, as well as talks a bit about the record industry, nostalgia, authenticity, and themes outside of love, loss, and things like that. Let me get my biggest issue with American Heartbreak out of the way immediately -- it’s too long. Simply put, this album is way too long for its own good. It doesn’t need to be two hours. Here’s the thing about that, though, and it’s that none of these songs are bad. There are some songs I don’t like, one of which being “She Wants A Cowboy,” which is this cheeky and clever little song about “selling out,” meaning that this girl he’s talking to likes cowboys, so he does his best to emulate that, despite never riding a horse or wearing cowboy hats. It seems to be a dig at the music industry and how these guys are very inauthentic, and it’s clever for what it is, but it has a very generic pop-country feel to it (although I do think that’s totally intentional on his part). There’s also another song that deals with the record industry, which is “Cold Damn Vampires,” and I don’t care for this one too much, either, despite it being clever, lyrically, comparing these executives to vampires that suck the creativity out of you. This album is just too long for its own good, especially when a lot of the songs sound completely similar to each other. Not totally, as I do think that Bryan’s vocals and use of hooks is very strong to make each song stand out, even if the instrumentation is somewhat lackluster in spots. To be fair, though, that’s to be expected, as this album is very sparse with its instrumentation. You might hear some violin, fiddle, and pedal steel, but a lot of this record is just Bryan with his banjo or acoustic guitar. I ended up putting together my own version of the album that’s a 40-minute record, at least after listening to the album five or six times, and there are some truly great songs here. The lead single, “Something In The Orange” is one of my favorite songs of the year, but songs like “Younger Years,” “Darling,” “Blue,” or the subtle criticism of religion, “Ninth Cloud” are utterly fantastic songs that showcase his vocals and lyrical prowess. Zach Bryan is one of the best songwriters of today, regardless of genre. I would argue, though, that Summertime Blues has some of my favorite songs that he’s put out this year, such as the title track, “Jamie” with Charles Wesley Godwin, “Quittin’ Time,” “Motorcycle Drive By,” “Oklahoma Smokeshow,” or “Matt & Audie.” I love Summertime Blues, and if I’m being honest, I’ve listened to that more than I’ve listened to American Heartbreak. I can understand why he didn’t put these songs on American Heartbreak, however, because they don’t really fit with its overall themes. “Quittin’ Time” kind of does, as it’s just a simple track about this guy wanting to get off, so he can go dance with his wife or girlfriend. It’s a sweet little song with small stakes, but it’s a nice song. A lot of the others, though, don’t seem to fit, and part of that could be because Summertime Blues expands more into having more third-person narratives, versus personal stories. He started including more third-person narratives on his last EP, 2020′s Quiet, Heavy Dreams. That was my introduction to his music, and I personally love that record, it’s one of the greatest folk / country albums I’ve heard in awhile. Summertime Blues, as well as American Heartbreak to an extent, follow up on that. American Heartbreak is more or less a collection of personal and first person narratives, but there are a couple of stories about other people, fictional or not. Summertime Blues, on the other hand, seems to have some more third person stories, and it’s cool that he includes that. Him, Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, and Parker Millsap are a good example of a few country / Americana artists that are good at mixing personal and third person narratives into their music. Tyler Childers’ new album actually came out today, so I might be listening to that later, but Zach Bryan is one of the more interesting artists to come out today. If you’re into folk, Americana, or country music, and you haven’t listened to Zach Bryan’s music yet, you should check these out. Personally, I’d recommend Summertime Blues more, only because it’s a shorter project, but you could do what I did and take your favorite tracks from American Heartbreak and listen to those, especially if a two-hour album seems daunting, because it is. I don’t usually like albums that go over an hour, and for good reason. If I had one problem with this album, aside from it being too long, it is very repetitive, so I don’t think this needed to be a triple album, because a lot of the songs do sound similar, if not completely, it’s just that there’s no reason for this album to be really long. It’s cool that he didn’t want to cut any songs, but that’s what bonus tracks are for. While I don’t know if I’ll put American Heartbreak on my albums of the year list, I think Summertime Blues might make it, only because I love every song it, and it’s very easy to dive into, versus a two-hour long album. Both are great records, but if you’re new to Zach Bryan, check out the song “Something In The Orange,” as well as the Summertime Blues EP, or even his last one, Quiet, Heavy Dreams. That’s another good one, but you can’t go wrong, either way.

Find someone who grows flowers in the darkest parts of you

BMer’s Top 10 of 2022

3. Zach Bryan - American Heartbreak

country

Zach Bryan is leading a wave of traditional, legit country music back to airwaves. American Heartbreak gets better and better every time I listen to it. Bryan also released a Live at Red Rocks album this past Fall that is fantastic as well.

Favorite Tracks” “Open the Gates” “Happy Instead” “Sun to Me”

“And I remember being younger and my mother told me true Find someone who grows flowers in the darkest parts of you Take heed when things get hard and don't you ever turn around 'Cause you’ll find someone, someday, somewhere That grows you to the clouds“ -Sun To Me

My Favorite Songs of 2022

4. Florence + the Machine - Dance Fever

5. Charley Crockett - Man From Waco

6. Whiskey Myers - Tornillo

7. Sigrid - Bad Life

8. Randall King - Shot Glass

9. Kailin Butts - What Else Can She Do

10. Miranda Lambert - Palomino

🌻🌾

“I've been overdrinking

'Cause I've been overthinking

'Cause I get so damn anxious at night

Chemicals and nicotine

Friends ask how you've been

You just learn to say you're alright”

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for December 24, 2022 - Declining City Gentleman

In this episode, I play the other of our traditional holiday songs by American Heartbreak; truncated due to illness I tell an anecdote and wish everyone the best.

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, December 24 2022.

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Zach Bryan