Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan (August 25th, 2023) Album • Page 4

i'm sure she is. i would still rather see literally any other artist from the openers though lol

 

Sheryl is the best of the openers. And I love Isbell.

 

THE SAME.

 

For @shea, @macbethfan, @Leftandleaving, and others a little turned off by American Heartbreak's 34-song sprawl, here's a more digestible 18-track version. I think every fan would probably have a different version of this, but I think this encapsulates the feel of the album while also including all the best songs.

I really do think most of the album is worthwhile, though, so if you like this, I'd encourage you to give the whole thing a try.

 

Good picks. I’d keep Poems and Closing Time too

 

Really though, I do recommend just throwing all of his songs into a playlist and shuffling it while you drive or are outside or are drinking beers outside (not while driving). He has very, very few skips across all of his releases. The first two albums have some of his best songs as well, if you weren’t going to check them out.

 

The live album gives a good taste of his music too. It has most of his "bigger" songs and they have a different energy live vs recorded.

 

honestly i just break the album into three parts in my mind

 

I've gotten to listen to the new one a handful of times now, and I absolutely love it. If I'm being completely honest and transparent here, I'm not gonna listen to the opening spoken poem probably ever again, but otherwise this thing is pretty concise by Zach Bryan standards.

My only mild critique would be that the song "Smaller Acts" sounds very rough, even compared to the not-super-polished rest of the album, like a demo or something that he recorded outside, and it's weird having that as the second to last song and then having another song afterwards that sounds like the rest of the album sound-quality-wise. It's a good song though, and it makes me wish he recorded it fully or just saved it for another project, which I know is not something this guy really does haha - but I almost always hate when artists throw songs that sound like demos on albums where not all of the songs sound like that l, so I know I'm biased. Maybe as a closer? Even then though, there's gotta be something great about the rough version where you feel like recording it again would lose something, and I don't get that at all from this song.

Album is fantastic though, and definitely more approachable than the 34-song behemoth that preceded it. This guy is incredible.

 

Came here to crush you if Corinthians was not on there but you nailed it!

LOL I could never get it down to 18. Feels like a fool's errand to me. Good for you for even attempting.

I just split it into thirds when I first listened to it. Digested it like 3 separate albums, one at a time. To me that's the only way.

 

I love smaller acts and the roughness of it.

 

checking the album out after the kacey musgraves feature

 

Overtime might already crack my top 10 ZB

 

The Red Rocks version of “Snow” is maybe my favorite. But “Burn, Burn, Burn” might actually be my #1.

 

“Overtime”, “Summertimes Close”, “Fear and Fridays” and “Jakes Piano - Long Island” are my current highlights from the new one.

 

I just listened to the album again while I was cooking dinner and yeah this thing is fucking amazing.

 

That one and "Darling" were my last cuts.

"Corinthians" rules! One of my favorites.

I always had trouble viewing it as three separate albums. It doesn't really split very neatly. I played LP 3 on the turntable while making dinner tonight, and it really feels like the last third of an album, not so much its own thing.

I mostly just shuffled around the whole album over and over again until all the different songs started to stick out more to me.

 

Just listened to Overtime, pretty great. What percent of this album is upbeat like this vs more downtempo?

 

I couldn't really make rhyme or reason out of 34 songs in a row / 2 hours of music all as one big album, but it also doesn't really work to just chop it up into 3 smaller chunks either, or even 2 really. I think I ended up focusing on individual songs first and then pulling out the ones I really liked a lot and ended up with about 20-24 songs that seem essential to me, and just looking over the ones you went with for this I think it lines up at least like 90% if not more.

There really are so many absolutely fantastic songs on American Heartbreak and there just aren't many bad ones at all, but at the same time I completely understand people being turned off by the sheer length of it.

I know for myself, even as a big fan of his, I haven't really even listened to the long EP he released afterwards, even though I listen to the AH songs all of the time.

 

The EP is good, but there's a meandering magic to American Heartbreak that I was missing on Summertime Blues. And I think this new album has that back, even though it is more concise.

 

Oklahoma Smokeshow and Summertime Blues ftw off the EP

 

I listened to it maybe once when it first came out and remember liking it, but I just haven't gone back to it, whereas I listen to AH a few times a week when I'm working out.

 

I'm still a little mad he named a song "Motorcycle Drive By" and it wasn't a Third Eye Blind cover.

 

First time I listened to the ep I skipped right to this song just to check

 

The EP is great too