Album Review- Zach Bryan

I first heard Zach Bryan about the time most people did with 2022s American Heartbreak. I was on a lot of long road trips and found his music was playing all over Sirius XM- from the mainstream country station to the American alternative station to the rock station. 

In 2023, his self titled album would be a commercial and critical success. It was an easy prediction for me to say that at some time the country music roller coaster would spit him out and he would come out of it angry and writing some killer albums like Steve Earle had done. 2024s The Great American Bar Scene made things happen like nothing I could have foreseen. He had previously taken two songs to the # 1 position on the country charts, and though Pink Skies only got to #3, it somehow felt bigger. Maybe it was the sold out Arena tours. Maybe it was that he reached a certain ubiquitous on country radio now that he had a handful of songs getting play. Maybe it was that he didn’t fit in with the country radio scene. Or maybe that the scene was starting to move from “party songs” to more earnest songwriter music like Bryan. 

But besides being supremely talented, like young Earle, he seemed to be possessed by that artistic streak for self-destruction. He was arrested in 2023 for interference at a traffic stop. More concerningly, when he should have been celebrating a successful 2024, he was in the news because of a messy breakup with girlfriend Brianna LaPaglia (Bri is a podcaster for “bro sports” franchise Barstool Sports) that played out in public. As good as Bryan’s music is, it’s those kind of headlines that turn people off. In 2025, he got into an online fight with singer John Moreland, an artist that he had previously collaborated with. Then later in the year, he got into an actual physical fight with country singer Gavin Adcock at a music festival. 

 If Bryan was going to have “rough and rowdy” days, he was having them, but 2026 could be maturity. He got married to someone without a public profile. He has also massively invested in the legacy of Jack Kerouac, purchasing the museum in Lowell, Massachusetts and the original typewriter scrolls of On The Road and Dharma Bums. He also started out the year releasing a new album, too- With Heaven on Top. As a Bryan fan, I am impressed with the new offering which starts with a poem and then 24 new tracks. He had Bruce Springsteen guest on his last album, and it’s a quick connect-the-dots to see the influence. That said, it’s not a negative, Bryan effortlessly tell stories that usually top out at 3 minutes. He also the bitterness of an old pop star already. “Bad News” was one of the first high profile songs to call out ICE raids. “Appetite” finds Bryan in northern Arkansas playing to “those who don’t care at all” - a lyric trainspotters try to guess might be a Wal Mart or Tyson Foods corporate gig. Elsewhere, Bryan struggles with God, Exs and the bottles. It’s a lot existential angst for someone who ended up scoring two bonafide hit singles on the charts with this album. 

As someone who like most people knew him only from radio airplay and then circled back to his early records, these songs are cut out of the same cloth. Bryan’s career feels like he doesn’t necessarily care about albums, he’s just as likely to throw out a fantastic single on an EP, which he seems to do quite abit. He has also been amazingly prolific. That said, the songs do hang together as an album. As much as it may seem lazy to compare him to Steve Earle- the parallels are too great. 

Looking at Wikipedia, his latest singles chart on both rock and country charts. That he didn't seem to put out any music in 2025 (after releasing roughly 75 songs in the previous three years) was a scary thought that he could go reclusive, but he hasn't missed a beat. This album also can’t escape the Springsteen comparisons either and I suppose The River or Nebraska have an American country feel to them. (Earle and Springsteen have strong connections to Johnny Cash of course with their songs). Bryan has collaborated with a variety of artists that only a few people like Earle or Springsteen might boast of (Kacey Musgraves, Kings of Leon, John Mayer, Charles Wesley Godwin, Bon Iver, Noah Kahan, The War and Treaty, the Lumineers, Sierra Ferrell, Maggie Rogers and the aforementioned Moreland). That said, this album doesn’t have star studded duets like the previous two long players and recent EPs. It is largely Bryan. He wrote all the songs and produced the album. The backing band is made of people that appear on some of his previous work but don’t include any names that most people would recognize. It would seem to say Bryan has reached his commercial peak since he has an amount of airplay over the past three years that few ever achieved and he packed stadiums. 

Whether that will continue is anyone’s guess and seems unlikely given the fact I think Bryan prioritizes art over commerce. Then again, like a Springsteen or Earle, I had no doubt with this much talent, he is going to have a solid fanbase, and the trade offs will be worth it. This album has a handful of songs that would make anyone’s greatest hits- “Say Why”, “Miles”, “Bad News”, “Appetite”, “Runny Eggs” and “Plastic Cigarette”. These songs are some of the best of any songwriter’s catalog. The world weary music and “getting older and getting clean” lyrics have the sense of realism of The Boss’s best work. Even among the songs that don’t hit this level, there aren’t any songs that feel like filler. Needless to say, I am already reserving a spot for this one on my year end "Best Of"