Music reviews: Zach Bryan, Dry Cleaning, and Madison Beer

‘With Heaven on Top’ by Zach Bryan

★★★

Zach Bryan’s music hasn’t changed much since his 2019 breakthrough,
and “it is hard to tell whether this means he is stuck or just sticking to what he does best,” said Kelefa Sanneh in The New Yorker. The ornery Oklahoma singer-songwriter didn’t need more than his “halfway hoarse” voice and simple country-folk strumming to become one of America’s biggest stars, and the willfully shaggy 25 tracks on his new album “evoke the blurry conviviality of a bar band at the moment between last call and
lights on.” Days after releasing the record, he issued a version that’s just Bryan and his guitar, helping push With Heaven on Top to No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart and “demonstrating how little adornment his best songs need.” But while his urge to share so much is commendable, 50 tracks are “just too much to take in at once,” said Daisy Innes in Holler. Still, a standout such as “Slicked Back,” which cribs from Tom Petty, works in both formats. The original “crackles with energy” while the acoustic version “showcases Bryan’s gift for capturing a moment with such sincerity that he seems to reflect on it before it’s even passed.”

‘Secret Love’ by Dry Cleaning

★★★★

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“It’s hard to sing along to a Dry Cleaning song,” said Stuart Berman in
Pitchfork. And that’s not just because vocalist Florence Shaw “isn’t really one for singing.” The frontwoman of the Grammy-winning, London-based post-punk outfit typically maintains “the calm elocution of a wellness podcast host” as she channels various characters in a “blasé-faire” voice. On “Cruise Ship Designer,” she gives voice to a smug pawn of the wealthy, on “Evil Evil Idiot,” she’s a hypochondriac foodie, and on “My
Soul/Half Pint,” she’s a neat freak who loves to organize but hates to clean. “Spoken-word post-punk works best when the band surrounding the vocalist has an acute feel for melody,” said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. Guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard, and drummer Nick Buxton are fully up to the challenge, creating “an album of unusual pleasures.” Each of the 11 tracks “features at least one musical element that lodges in memory even before you’ve bothered to figure out what Shaw is talking about.” Once you begin listening more closely, “Shaw’s uncanny magic takes over.”

‘Locket’ by Madison Beer

★★★

On her third album, Madison Beer can be heard at times “singing with the casual sultriness of someone who eats boys for breakfast,” said Lydia Wei in Paste. It’s a welcome dose of lightness from a talented vocalist who was touted by Justin Bieber as a future star when she was just 13. She crashed before she ever really made it, but at 26, she’s “perhaps finally ready to cut loose” because on Locket, she’s “stepping away from sleepy slo-fi pop,” stringing together “pop confection after pop confection.” The “sonically diverse” 11-song set includes a couple of “dark-siren synth-pop bangers,” a “booty-call yearner reimagined as a ’60s crooner jam,” and a “twinkly” R&B bedroom ballad that has Beer wittily imagining an ex dead—with angel wings. The record “represents a creative breakthrough for Beer,” said. Maura Johnston in Rolling Stone. Her voice is the “candy-colored center” of every treat here, and the album ends with her unleashing “a few dazzling vocal runs” over “an increasingly frenetic dance beat” before her voice dissolves into the surrounding synths, creating “a finish that feels like the culmination of a catharsis.”