Rating: 6/10
On Sept. 27, country singer Luke Bryan released his newest album, “Mind Of A Country Boy.” The album featured 14 songs, including “Country On” which he released as a single in 2022, and “But I Got a Beer In My Hand,” which he also released as a single in 2023.
Overall, the themes in “Mind of a Country Boy” were quite a shift from those of his previous albums. Bryan is typically known for his up-tempo jams like “Country Girl (Shake It For Me),” “That’s My Kind of Night” and “Play It Again.” However, “Mind of a Country Boy” prominently features more tame themes of him as a father, husband and Christian.
On par with the more soft-natured themes, most tracks on the album were slow-tempo songs with a heavy emphasis on the story the lyrics conveyed. The themes of this album showed just how much Bryan has matured and changed as a person and singer since his release of albums like “Tailgates & Tanlines” and “Crash My Party.”
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The only song that broke the pattern of slow-tempo tracks was the fifth song on the album, “But I Got a Beer In My Hand.” Its quick tempo, strong guitar instrumentation and lyrics about recently getting dumped were a shocking contrast to the songs before and after it. After listening to the entire album, this song feels out of place and should have remained a single.
The one song that came close to the energy that “But I Got a Beer In My Hand” has was “Country Song Came On.” While the background instrumentals were slow, the lyrics picked up for the chorus. This song was also the closest to Bryan’s older music and themes with lyrics like “Said I wasn’t gonna drink/ And then a country song came on, yeah.”
Another song that stood out in the album was “For The Kids.” For most of the album, Bryan sings about finding love with lyrics such as “I’ll do anything for ya’, baby, God knows” and “the key to your heart’s in her back pocket.” However, in “For The Kids” there is a startling divergence with lyrics like “We swore we’d never end up like this/ Married for the kids” that suggest an unhappy marriage.
What’s more, almost every song on the album had a copied and pasted slow guitar background with unnotable lyrics that blurred together.
The only track that gave listeners any hope of hearing similar music to Bryan’s older albums was the track “Mind Of A Country Boy.” The banjo and strong downbeat in the intro get listeners excited for a hard-hitting tune, but that drive quickly disappears once Bryan starts singing.
On top of the disappointing instrumentals, the lyrics were almost cringeworthy, hitting every single country music stereotype. Bryan strings together a list of things that are on the mind of a country boy with lyrics such as “Is the trickle charger hooked up to the boat?/ Is the pattern right on my turkey choke?/ Are them Appaloosa cats gonna bite?” which can be off-putting to anyone unfamiliar with these terms or lifestyle.
While as a whole the album highlights the lifestyle changes the singer has experienced, it felt lackluster and repetitive. The thematic changes from track to track give the listener whiplash and create a confusing and unpleasant experience when listening to the album as a whole.
Individual tracks were able to shine and showcase Bryan’s musicianship but overall, they were buried in the disappointing album.
