Zac Brown Band - The Comeback (2021) HI Res

Earnest, modest and not afraid to crack a dad joke, Zac Brown is country music’s version of a guy you would ask for help with a flat tire. That everyman approachability and love of a platitude (on this, his seventh major-label album, he drops "If you can't be nice, don't say nothin' at all" and "There's only so many trips around the sun") has made him a star. With The Comeback, he ticks a lot of boxes on the country-music lyric checklist fishing, screen doors, pickup trucks, John Deere, a pawn-shop guitar but there are stylistic surprises, too. It all kicks off with "Slow Burn," an ode to nostalgia for young love that is so big and arena-ready it could be a Kings of Leon track, complete with a sky-cracks-open choir’s "ohhhhhh" opening. The chorus of "Us Against the World" is almost as big, both setting Brown up for exciting awards show or concert performance moments. Fiery Southern rocker "GA Clay," meanwhile, sounds like it’s tailormade for a pick-up commercial, but adds in massive backing vocals that recall Merry Clayton’s "Gimme Shelter" wail. There’s a Mellencamp stomp and guitar jangle to the title song, which doubles down on the clichés with a guest appearance by the ghosts of 2020: "There's a thousand empty classrooms, broken glass in the streets/ Old Glory hanging on houses we're not supposed to leave/ It may feel like Lady Liberty's down on her luck/ When you hit rock bottom the only way is up." Brown also indulges in a bit of '80s FM country: There's a Ronnie Milsap spirit to the irresistible, organ-tinged "Old Love Song," and the great chorus of "Don't Let Your Heart" rocks an Alabama x Bob Seger (that rolling piano!) vibe. The bands dives into Hee Haw humor with "Fun Having Fun," a bluegrass novelty that piles on cartoony police sirens and "tough guy" voices for dads and cops, as Brown celebrates being a firebug, wrecking his granddaddy's truck and hotboxing while doing 95mph. "Paradise Lost on Me" is his easy-breezy ballad that belies its heartbreak-at-the-beach lyrics. "Wild Palomino" comes on like campfire sing-along and delivers two all-American country declarations: "As long as god's still in church and hard work still works and this collar on my shirt's still blue/ I'll never stop loving you" and "Whiskey's a Band-Aid that just leaves more scars." Jazz singer Gregory Porter serves up a soulful guest turn on "Closer to Heaven," while, on "Stubborn Pride," blues rocker Marcus King's gravelly rasp underscores the honey smoothness of Brown's own voice. And sometimes, it pays not to reinvent. Catchy "Same Boat" sounds a lot like Brown's first hit "Chicken Fried," weaving in fiddle, jug-band bass and a knee-slappin' bridge. "We're all in the same boat/ Fishing in the same hole," Brown sings, simplifying America's ideological divide to the point that you can only laugh when an Andy Griffith-style whistle kicks in. It’s already a hit.