On Friday, Jan. 9, country singer-songwriter Zach Bryan released his sixth studio album, With Heaven on Top. Featuring 25 tracks, the lengthy album captured his signature unpolished Americana sound. Despite the success of his previous releases, the album lacked memorability and failed to replicate his growth as an artist through its production. 

Bryan, who began his songwriting career as a teenager in Oologah, Oklahoma, rose to popularity in 2022 with his third album release, American Heartbreak. The album, featuring the no. 1 Billboard charting song, “Something in the Orange,” accelerated his career in the country music industry and beyond. His music incorporates themes of love, loss, and isolation, including his experience in the Navy and his battles with alcoholism. With Heaven on Top encapsulates these elements, along with his personal journey as an artist in a lengthy yet authentic studio project. 

Similar to four of his previous albums, With Heaven on Top begins with a spoken word poem, titled “Down, Down, stream.” Capturing the everflowing nature of time, the poem suggests that life is a river of moments, with lines such as “…before he could drink any of [the water], it’d already passed him by.” While it serves as a prelude to the autobiographical tone of this album, the writing fails to reflect this personal depth, a strength of his previous album openers, such as “Fear and Friday’s (Poem)” from the album Zach Bryan.

Despite the poem’s shortcomings, the first two tracks start out strong. “Runny Eggs” and “Appetite” tell unique stories of longing and emotional craving, and are intensely vulnerable. “Runny Eggs” is the slower transition from the opening poem, while “Appetite” picks up the pace with a fun upbeat melody and instrumental. The third track has more production than the majority of the album and stands out as a centerpiece of his musical creativity.

Several songs on the album also demonstrate introspection and complex emotional growth. Track four, “DeAnn’s Denim,” is nostalgic and heartfelt, with lyrics showcasing Bryan’s relationship with his mother, DeAnn, and the familial patterns of addiction. He uses denim jeans as a metaphor for his family’s genetic disposition to alcoholism, singing “…are you strong enough to stay away from family genes, cause DeAnn’s denim was a stubborn thing.” While this song isn’t much different from Bryan’s typical sound, it’s a classic addition that highlights his raw lyricism without being redundant. 

Beyond “DeAnn’s Denim,” many of the songs are forgettable, and for an album of its length, Bryan does little experimentation with his overall style. Moreover, in the few songs that he does experiment with, his execution is inconsistent. In track 16, “Rivers and Creeks,” he aims for an unpolished sound with voice cracks and vocal fry, which results in an awkward and unnatural finish. He also attempts to imitate Elvis Presley in the line “Deep within the shaking, earthquake in California summer,” yet it falls short of its intended effect. 

The final track and namesake of the album, “With Heaven on Top,” is a signature Zach Bryan song, yet it fails to set itself apart from his other popular hits. In particular, the title track sounds distinctly similar to his 2022 single “Burn, Burn, Burn,” with its guitar chords and overall acoustics. Still, the song finishes off the album with a hopeful message of acceptance and emotional elevation, “Every hard time, song rhyme, friend you’ve got, you’ll have Heaven on top.”

While it maintains cohesion and Bryan’s signature charm, With Heaven on Top is repetitive in both its melodies and lyrics. Bryan’s relatively short vocal range is only exacerbated by its drawn-out length, as he struggles to incorporate a variety of styles within its composition. For these reasons, With Heaven on Top earns 3.5 out of 5 feathers.