The Great American Bar Scene [2 LP] in Bloomington, MN

Unlike many of his country contemporaries in the 2020s,
Zach Bryan
embraces naked pretension. The opening track of
The Great American Bar Scene
bears a parenthetical distinguishing it as a "poem" which, in all practical purposes, means
Bryan
clearly enunciates every one of its lines in a deliberate recitation. None of the other 18 songs on
are explicitly stamped as a poem, but they are poetic, plump with purple imagery and plaintive rhymes. Three studio albums into his major-label career -- a discography that also includes indie releases, non-LP singles, EPs, duets, and live albums --
's emphasis on the lyrics is now familiar. He makes some effort to open up his production to faint echoes of heartland rock and occasionally shoring up his meditations with a suggestion of a backbeat, a shifting in arrangements that help gives
a more discernable shape than
American Heartbreak
or
. Cameos from a pair of rock superstars --
John Mayer
sculpts "Better Days,"
Bruce Springsteen
haunts the corridors of "Sandpaper" -- help pull
's aspirations into focus. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine