If you're not sure of who Zach Bryan is, I'm not quite sure what rock you've been living under for the past 10 months or so, but you can catch yourself up if necessary here and here.
Last night, Zach Bryan released his second full length album since August of 2019, all while being an active duty member of the United States. Most people would scoff at the idea of releasing two albums in that short of a period because a decrease in quality of the music being recorded, but that statement could not be further from the truth with Zach's second album, Elisabeth.
One hour and 4 minutes of an emotional roller coaster that I don't think any other album besides is debut album, DeAnn has made me feel something like this. DeAnn told about the struggles Zach had with the death of his mother, and Elisabeth is still an extremely emotional album in its own right, but for very different reasons. Elisabeth focuses on the positives in his life such as finding love, embracing who you've become, appreciating friendship and family, in addition to the hardships you've faced in life. But most of all, I think this album is Zach trying to stress that you need to stay true to yourself.
I'm not claiming to be a music critic, or even trying to be, so that breakdown may be incorrect, but more people need to hear what Zach's written. It's not groundbreaking musically, Zach has said it himself, he plays the same four or five chords on the guitar, he doesn't think he has the best voice, and even says his friends are more talented than he is. But his songwriting, good God Almighty, his song writing
I haven't dealt with even a fraction of the struggles Zach has gone through in is life, but his music impacts me in a different way than it does most I think for that exact reason is why I'm able to consider Zach my favorite artist of all-time. When I first came across Zach on my Twitter timeline in June of last year, never in a million years did I see that happening, but that nonchalant Twitter follow I gave him at the time is still the best thing I've ever done on social media.
I was sitting in my bed last night, balling my eyes out listening to Zach go from singing about leaving his girl is for a younger man that he no longer wants to be to going through the death of someone near and dear to his heart dying during withdrawals from a detox, to loving his friends no matter their background or the fucked up pasts they've had, and all the way to basically telling the music industry they can fuck off because his friends and family is all he needs.
I've never been in love, and sure as hell haven't lost someone I love in a situation like that, but Zach's music makes me thankful and it makes me hopeful. I'm not where I want to be in life, who knows if I'll ever get there to be completely honest, but as fucked up as it is to say, the pain Zach's gone through has made me more appreciative of everything I have in my life. His music made me call some relatives today, it made me catch up with some friends who I haven't talked to in awhile and helped me come to the realization that things are gonna be alright.
Pretty crazy that an album recorded in a barn by a Navy sailor and his best friends is now one of my favorite albums of all time, but I'm not complaining. Before Zach leaves for deployment be sure to listen to his music and follow him on all forms of social media @zachlanebryan.
And if you need any other reason to listen to his music, check out the uber emotional documentary Zach released on his YouTube channel about the process that went into making the album. It'll make you even more appreciative of what he's doing when you see how unorthodox the route Zach Bryan is taking, but it doesn't matter when you possess the level of talent he does. Someone on Twitter put it best in reference to the mistakes on Elisabeth:
And this
But if everyone listens to Zach's music and watches the documentary, I'll stop fan girling and keep my emotions to myself. Probably not true, but deal with it.
Checking Out