Zac Brown Band's The Owl Review

Jekyll + Hyde But Worse

Like the description says, The Owl is similar to the band's 2015 album, Jekyll + Hyde, but much worse. The Owl is a follow up to the band's 2017 LP Welcome Home. Welcome Home was a return to form for Zac Brown. The album featured a familiar traditional country sound that fans of the band expected. The Owl took all of the steps forward the band took in Welcome Home and regressed two steps back. I truly don't know what Zac Brown was thinking in this album.

Starting off with my positives, "Leaving Love Behind" is the best song on the album by far. The band's harmonies are excellent, the sparse piano sounds great, and the lyrics are actually meaningful. "Me and the Boys in the Band" & "Shoofly Pie" are also pretty solid songs. "Me and the Boys in the Band" sounds the most Zac Brown Band-esque out of the entire album, providing some great instrumentation. "Already on Fire" is a guilty pleasure for me. The first verse and chorus is great, then it gets overrun by overproduction. Overproduction is a common theme in this album. "Finish What We Started" featuring three-time Grammy winner, Brandi Carlile, is also a solid song off the album. It's a mature view of a past relationship. The entire band sounds good on harmonies, and Carlile sounds great.

As for my negatives, my two biggest ones are overproduction and the lyrics. Starting off with the production, it's not country in the slightest. I'm not one to complain at all when it comes to an artist experimenting or even featuring a few non-genre songs in an album. However, you can't truly call The Owl country. It's simply EDM-infused pop. "God Given", "OMW", and "Need This" are the true low points of The Owl. "God Given", in particular, is just inexcusable. It's truly horrible. It features Zac Brown rapping about how his woman's looks are "God given". The lyrics are simply cringeworthy. Like Grady Smith said in his review, "How do you go from "Highway 20 Ride" to "God Given"?" It's a great, yet sad question.

In conclusion, The Owl really feels like fast-food music. That was the first thing that came to my mind when I listened through the album. It's enough to get you through a car ride and that's about it. It's really sad coming from Zac Brown. He and his band are so much more talented than this album. The Owl really strips everything that makes the band great.

The Good: Leaving Love Behind, Me and The Boys in the Band

The Bad: God Given, OMW, Need This

5/10