One of the fastest rising stars in the country world, Tyler Braden, is set to finally release his highly anticipated debut album this coming Friday. I’ve really gotten into him this year after seeing him support Brothers Osborne, so have been rather impatiently waiting for its release. So, when it came over our emails, I jumped on it almost immediately. I’ve heard a few of the tracks before as we’ve had a handful of singles, but this thing is LONG, so I’m sure there’s plenty more awesomeness to sink my teeth into!
The dark Southern single ‘ME OR THE DAWN’ opens the album up perfectly. From the strings to Tyler’s fantastic drawl, the verse builds up to a massive, pretty rockin’ chorus! It’s catchy as anything too, certainly set to be stuck in my head for the next few hours/days. I remember hearing this one live too and it’s just as good on track! We even get some awesome little guitar lead lines in the bridge, adding a nice little variety to the track. And Tyler pushing his vocals in that last chorus is amazing, his power and rasp being phenomenal and almost reminding me just a little of Shaun Morgan of Seether. It’s certainly got that rock edge to it, but it’s also so very radio-friendly; no wonder it’s done so well already! A fantastic choice to start the album on!
Another single, ‘MORE THAN A PRAYER’ is up next. It has a bit more of a traditional country vibe to it, at least at the start. The pretty quick pace and great guitar chord progressions, alongside the absolutely amazing vocal harmonies in the pre, again all build perfectly into another arena-filling chorus. It’s a fantastically written chorus too, it dropping out to just the drums and vocals for the first two bars, the guitars working between the vocal lines before exploding back in at the end. It’s incredibly memorable and very catchy! It once again has a rock edge to it too, giving off vibes of Shaman’s Harvest or Sin Shake Sin. It’s a sound that I absolutely adore, and love that it’s slowly slipping into more mainstream country. It’s another simple-structured song, but one I love and is an easy highlight for our playlist!
The first new song of the album, ‘THINK ABOUT ME’, is a slower, radio-ballad. Having said that, the guitar tone still firmly grounds it in a rockier sound. And somehow, despite that, it’s still rather beautiful. Tyler’s lyrics throughout are awesome, and his lyrics are on point! It’s yet another massive highlight on an album that’s so far packed full of them!
Single ‘ABOVE THE WATER’ is another slower track kinda like the previous, though overall more stripped-back. It’s an acoustic-ballad, focusing almost entirely on the guitar and Tyler’s brilliant vocals. It does still build throughout, keeping it consistently interesting, but the core of the song remains. It’s an interesting choice for a single as it is so simple, but there is no denying that it’s a fantastic song nonetheless. Another one that’s definitely worth checking out!
‘YOU DON’T GET TO CRY’, much as is expected with the lyrics, is another slower song. It’s very much like the previous song in that it’s mainly built around the guitars and vocals. However, the rest of the instrumentation is present at times throughout. Arguably, I prefer this to the single previous; it feels like it has a bit more heart and umph to it, and I can certainly relate to the lyrics. It’s a damn good country ballad, and one that I’d recommend to anyone into the style! It’s maybe my favourite ballad track on the album, as similar songs like ‘LOVED ONCE’ and ‘EVERGREEN’ are still fantastic, but don’t quite come close.
Single ‘HOW IT STARTS’ just begs for all the radio play in the world. Combining elements of country, rock and pop perfectly, it’s a lot of fun and so well crafted and written. From the simple verses to the chorus begging to be played to huge festival crowds, it’s very much a summer anthem! It’s very much another absolutely massive highlight of the album for me!
‘SO LONG’ is even more rock than the rest of it, giving off very big HARDY vibes for me. That’s not an issue at all either, I love it! From the simple electric guitar and Tyler’s vocals building to that MASSIVE chorus, it’s really awesome. My only slight complaint is I really hoped we’d get a little more of a guitar solo in this one, as it really felt like it was gearing up for it. Still, it’s an excellent song and yet another high point of the album, another song that’ll be stuck in my head for days!
The next few songs on the album, for some reason, are all in lower case and are classified under the ‘(b stage)’ moniker. I assume it’s an indicator of these being even more stripped-back songs than any of the rest of the album, very much acoustic-folk/Americana over the more country-rock rest of the release. All are great songs in their own right, and fit pretty perfectly together. However, with the album already being long and a touch bloated, I do think slowing it down for 13-minutes in the middle is a risk that doesn’t quite pay off, at least for me. Still, as I said, none are bad songs at all, with ‘nothing looks good on you’ being a personal highlight. Plus, Tyler’s vocals on ‘dear old flame’ honestly gave me goosebumps. And I wouldn’t even say spread them out either, as I like the idea of them all being together as almost an intimation. But it does make a long album even longer.
‘BREAKING IN THESE BOOTS’ picks the pace back up perfectly, being maybe the rockiest track on the album. To I’m sure no one’s surprise, I loved it. It’s a blues-tinged, swagger-dripping country anthem with plenty of energy and memorable moments. It’s pretty heavy for even country rock too, and it’s wild that Tyler’s vocals fit this just as well as an emotional acoustic ballad. It’s another awesome song and, you guessed it, another massive high point!
One of the latest singles ‘GOD & GUNS & ROSES’ is another slower one, but as a massive GnR fan I can’t help but love and appreciate the cleaver lyric writing, and the song itself is well crafted. This deep into the album it’s a little hard to talk about it without repeating myself, but it is a damn fun little song. And indeed, thank (80s) Guns n’ Roses!
‘CALL ME FIRST’ and ‘RIGHT ON TRACK’ are both other good songs but damn, after such a long album already, they do give off slight filler/album track vibes. I hate to be ‘that guy’ as I definitely can’t write music this good, but when the album is 19 tracks long and packed full of awesome, amazing songs, these couple do kinda stand out as ones that maybe could have been cut. It’s a shame too, as I really enjoy the latter, especially the more I listen, but it just doesn’t live up to a lot of the rest. They worked well as singles too, but in the context of the album I’m sadly less into them.
Friend of the company Kaitlin Butts features on the next track, ‘MIGHT BE DANGEROUS’, and honestly it kinda meshes the two’s styles perfectly. Not only that, but their voices compliment each others just as well. It’s a real epic-feeling song, their harmonies being beautiful and the strings behind them filling everything out the sound incredibly. I’m shocked it’s the only feature on the album, but it makes it even more impactful, honestly. This is utterly beautiful and another firm highlight of the album. I’m honestly shocked it isn’t a single already, but surely will be in the near future!
The closing track of the album, surprisingly, is Tyler’s biggest hit to date, ‘DEVIL YOU KNOW’. It was the one I was familiar with before I’d even seen him live, and it’s one hell of a banger. No wonder it’s got him this far already, as it really is a Brantley Gilbert-style masterclass of modern country-rock. That chorus is incredible, but the whole song is awesome and so damn catchy. And it’s another song that is just as good live as it is on track! Tyler was onto a winner with this song, but honestly it fits just as well on the album as it works as a single. And not many artists these days close things out with a big song, which is wild to me as I love it as a concept and it works well here. Of course it’s another huge highlight of the album, and the perfect way to end things!
Overall: I really enjoyed this! There are so many incredible songs throughout. Yes, I’d still say it’s a little long, but it had a pretty great flow to it and there was so much variety that it didn’t actually feel it’s length as much as some country albums do. And there were so many amazing songs that it would honestly be hard to cut it down by much. And the fact that this is his debut album too, with just a couple of EPs prior to it, is utterly insane. He is already becoming a big name in the country world, and this release will very much solidify that fact! I’d recommend this to absolutely anyone out there into country and/or rock!
The Score: 8.5/10