No man ever steps in the identical river twice, the thinker Heraclitus mentioned, and every time an individual crisscrosses America, each the person and America have modified. The brand new album With Heaven on High is a snapshot of motion; Zach Bryan taking inventory of how far he’s traveled whilst the bottom shifts beneath his toes.
At an expansive 80 minutes, With Heaven on High unfolds as a musical odyssey: from Kansas Metropolis to Chicago, Colorado to California, bull-riding in Oklahoma to operating with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Typically Bryan’s nervous thoughts leaps between areas in a single breath. In “Pores and skin,” he sings, “Are you strolling ’spherical Tribeca with him?/ Can you continue to really feel that Wisconsin wind from that late October?” His thoughts stays stressed, even on the uncommon events that his physique holds nonetheless.
Bryan first introduces these themes with a poem in opener “Down, Down, Stream.” Right here a New York man “advised me the whole lot had gone down, down stream from him/ Like that chilly water of his life had gone up his again, down his entrance, and round his legs/ And earlier than he may drink any of it, it’d already handed him by.” There’s an undercurrent of concern in With Heaven on High: a hoarding of recollections, the nervousness that exes and mates and even outdated canines may quickly be forgotten.
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Does that sound darkish? As a result of With Heaven on High is an album made for the sunshine, filled with sunny drives via the desert and comfortable nighttime fires. The darkness creeps in via the lyrics, like shadows forged by large, stunning chords.
“Urge for food” finds Bryan bombing on stage in “Northwest Arkansas/ Enjoying reveals to those that don’t care in any respect.” It’s a good distance from “my band playin’ candy notes in entrance of 100 thousand folks,” as occurred in actual life in September, in addition to within the first observe, “Down, Down, Stream.” However the refrain of “Urge for food” soars on clouds of pleasure and fiddle strings.
“Urge for food” additionally grapples with Bryan’s tendency to ruminate. He wonders “why am I at all times considering/ ‘Bout issues that basically matter, like twin towers and satellites?” He considers whether or not or not he ought to have youngsters, singing, “What if I don’t need kids/ To develop up like their father? Keen/ To stir shit up and begin a combat/ Give themself up an urge for food.” Right here “Urge for food” is greater than starvation or ambition. It’s restlessness, a cause to maintain wandering.
If there’s a problem relating to With Heaven on High, it’s that Bryan’s music doesn’t journey so far as he does. On “Aeroplane,” he vows, “I’m sayin’ goodbye to who I was/ I’ll begin a forest hearth with my household tree.” However a observe like “DeAnn’s Denim,” about his late mom, wouldn’t sound misplaced on 2019’s DeAnn. The individual he was remains to be right here, and so is his household tree; the previous is current.
Like his antecedent, Neil Younger, Bryan’s songs can appear to run collectively at first, and selection would possibly solely reveal itself after a few listens. However regardless of all of that, his musicality (and band) proceed to evolve. In contrast even to his final album, 2024’s The Nice American Bar Scene, With Heaven on High has extra backing vocals and much more horns, as his group inches ever-closer to the E Road Band. Bruce Springsteen’s affect is plain, and whereas Bryan by no means fairly dips into anthemic rock and roll, related compositional concepts add welcome coloration to his nation palette.
The irresistible songs “Santa Fe” and “Dry Deserts” layer a cello onto Bryan’s trusty fiddle sound, in addition to a saxophone, a trombone, and a trumpet trio. In these latter two songs, the barren desert permits his thoughts to wander, circling again to his household (“Santa Fe”) or a lover (“Dry Deserts”) virtually unbidden. Like the perfect of Springsteen, enormous bursts of sound accompany surging feelings that threaten to run away from the singer.
Nowhere is that this extra clear than “Unhealthy Information,” a livid have a look at America at present that lands even tougher now than when he teased it final October. “I heard the cops got here/ Cocky motherfuckers, ain’t they?” he sings. “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door/ Attempt to construct a home nobody builds no extra.”
Swells of strings and brass underscore nods to Woody Guthrie and a few of his angriest lyrics, like “The center finger’s rising and it gained’t cease displaying.” He snaps out the phrases of the refrain: “I’ve received some unhealthy information/ The fading of the purple, white, and blue.” There was a time when Zach Bryan was identified for tender, colourful songs like “One thing within the Orange” and “Pink Skies.” However he’s a pure firebrand, and “Unhealthy Information” immediately turns into probably the greatest songs in regards to the Trump years.
Bryan sings about saying goodbye to who he was, however With Heaven on High suggests one thing extra difficult: perhaps we don’t shed our previous selves a lot as carry them with us, whilst we modify. The Oklahoma child remains to be there, even on an ‘aeroplane’ to Spain. His mom’s reminiscence travels with him, as do all these dive bars and cross-country street journeys. The album’s triumph is that it holds all of this without delay — the wanderer and the homesick son, the sector headliner and the man bombing in Arkansas. Heraclitus was proper: you’ll be able to’t step in the identical river twice. However Zach Bryan proves you’ll be able to preserve transferring ahead whereas honoring the place you’ve been.
