The Official Country Music Thread Genre • Page 134

New Brennen Leigh out today.

 

New 49 Winchester out today!

 

New Lyle Lovett out today as well. I don’t always love the songs with the big band sound, but 12th of June is right up there near the top of my favorite songs this year. Every since I became a dad I have a new appreciation for songs on that subject, and that song is one of the best tunes about fatherhood I’ve ever heard.

Also looking forward to checking out the new albums by 49 Winchester and Joseph Huber.

 

Ingrid Andress I think he’s seeing someone else… I’ll just go ahead overthink this and write up and get a whole song done on this instead of just… asking if he’s seeing someone else.

still like the new single though

 

New Lyle Lovett is unfortunately a pretty big disappointment. 12th of June is an all timer, but didn’t really enjoy much else from this to be completely honest.

 

Anyone checking out the new Zach Bryan record today?

I’ve listened to parts of it and it’s so damn good.

 

Absolutely insane that it's 34 tracks long, love it so far though.

 

Who the fuck let him release a triple album?!

 

i had the same question but then I worked through it today and I love it. Not a lot of filler for 34 tracks.

 

I just fundamentally have a problem with the presentation. This is this dude’s debut album, right? Make a proper album-length statement instead of just dumping a warehouse of songs on streaming, or split it up into multiple albums that each have their own feel and mood and cohesion.

It also really rubs me the wrong way that the country music industry constantly makes new female artists start with EPs and singles and inch their way toward catalogs, while white dudes are given the freedom to do this.

I’m almost always on the “shorter albums are better” train, though, and I know there are some people on this site that think a 10-song album is not enough. Maybe this is for those kinds of people!

 

11 songs is my ideal length when it comes to most music. 34 songs is fine if youre a grindcore band lol. but yeah I'm not a fan of this trend of double/triple albums in country music. Cody Johnson had like two decent songs on his.

 

The new John Moreland album landed in my inbox this afternoon and I'm wrapping up my first listen. Lovely, lovely stuff. Probably the most immediately struck I've been by an album of his since High on Tulsa Heat.

 

Oh man oh man I loved the last one but that’s some high praise

 

Just got around to checking out Caroline Spence. Super good stuff. “Blue Sky Rain” is crazy good.

 

Double albums are fine when there isnt filler. However, that pretty much never happens lol. It does give you more to pick from to build your own album though i guess.

 

Making my way through this Zach Bryan album right now. I'm enjoying it, but I think I'll have to break it up across a few sittings (and eventually make my own 15-song single-album playlist). He's not really dynamic enough as a songwriter, vocalist, or musician to justify this kind of sprawl. Also, super inessential covers like his "You Are My Sunshine" always strike me as baffling when they're tacked onto something that is already so overlong.

 

I'm admittedly an idiot who knows nothing about how any of this shit works, BUT, I feel like all these sprawling, over-long albums are built to game the system of streaming and its stats...somehow? It seems to be a trend in country especially at the moment. Cody Johnson, Zach Bryan, Jon Wolfe, Morgan Wallen (ugh), all have released double (or triple, in Bryan's case) albums recently and that's just off the top of my head. I feel like there's even more I'm missing.

 

The Eric Church double album is another example.

I'm sure streaming is a factor here. Wallen's album was the top-selling album of last year, period, and I think it beat out Olivia Rodrigo's album in part because a playthrough on Spotify counted for about 2.5 times as much just because of its length.

 

Oh man, I forgot all about the Eric Church double album. Still haven't listened to it yet either hah. At least that one got split into two LPs and were released a week apart, so that's...kinda different than just dumping a boatload of songs all at once.

It just strikes me as a weird trend to be happening in country music, specifically. Then again, Vince Gill put out a quadruple album back in 2006 so maybe it's not all that unusual lol.

 

The thing with the Vince album is that he really committed to different sonic themes and successfully made four very different albums that he just packaged as one. That is…not the case with any of these recent doubles or triples. Then again, Vince Gill is in a different galaxy in terms of his talent, so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

I've listened to the Zach Bryan album 3-4 times now and I still haven't made it through the entire thing in one sitting. There's a ton of good stuff here but it needs some of the fat cut out.

That cover seems pretty intentional in the tracklisting. It's right after "She's Alright" which I believe is a song about his mother. Works for me in context.

 

These Days is really good and absolutely justifies its length but I’m not sure even Vince himself has ever sat down and listened to it all the way through in one sitting haha

 

I agree, lots of good stuff. But it’s also pretty samey throughout, so it definitely runs together.

I don’t really think the cover is bad, but it’s a pretty easy place to start trimming, imo.

 

Caught John R. Miller and Vincent Neil Emerson’s co-headlining show last night, which is pretty much the perfect 1 2 punch. Those 2 are probably 2 of my top 3 favorites from this genre over the past couple years and they did not disappoint. Highly recommend that if you’ve yet to check them out you change that soon.