Zac Brown Band: "Jekyll + Hyde"

[dm2081]

After having some time to fully take in this disc, this is how I would like to see the country singles go:
1. Homegrown
2. Loving You Easy
3. Bittersweet
4. Remedy
5. Young And Wild

I think "Bittersweet" is one of the greatest songs they've ever made, and it's worth taking the risk to release it to radio. It could stall out in the teens or so, or I could see it being a huge hit and award winner (Especially at the Grammy's). It would also make for a great choice heading into the fall months, with the weather getting colder and ballads getting more acceptable. I then think they should try to release something more country sounding next, just so they don't completely allienate their core country audience. Either "Remedy" or "Wildfire" seem to fit this bill in my opinion, with "Remedy" sounding like a more Celtic version of "Whatever It Is", but with different lyrics and theme obviously. Then, instead of going with the predictable "Castaway" (still a great song), I'd go with "Young And Wild" as the last single, which would sound great next summer (anticipating 5th single will be sent out around same time next year). I think "Young And Wild" is more catchy than "Castaway", although honestly both would probably do well at radio.

[zjames]

Love
02 "Loving You Easy"
04 "Homegrown"
05 "Mango Tree (feat. Sara Bareilles)"
06 "Heavy Is The Head (Chris Cornell)"
07 "Bittersweet"
10 "One Day"
11 "Dress Blues"
13 "Junkyard"
14 "I'll Be Your Man (Song For A Daughter)"

Like
01 "Beautiful Drug"
03 "Remedy"
08 "Castaway"
09 "Tomorrow Never Comes"
12 "Young And Crazy"
15 "Wildfire"
16 "Tomorrow Never Comes (Acoustic Version)"

Well, where to begin? I'll start by saying this is probably by least favorite Zac Brown Band album, but it is still very good. There are many great songs on here; "Bittersweet" is a heart-wrencher that ranks among the top of their work, "Junkyard" is a progressive rocker with a great story and imagery, and "I'll Be Your Man" combines a light-hearted reggae tone with meaningful lyrics. And every single so far has been great. 

A few songs could be fantastic but kind of fall flat production-wise. "Remedy" hasn't connected with me like it has with some of you guys. It sounds like 2 or 3 different songs and feels a bit disjointed. "Young and Crazy" would be one of my favorites on the album, but its poppy over-production knocks it down a peg for me.

Now on to the pop songs. "Beautiful Drug" and "Tomorrow Never Comes" are good, but they're by far my least favorite songs on the album. They sound a little too generic and calculated to me. If Zac Brown Band insist on crossing genres, rock is more natural and consistent with their sound. 

I understand why some people might not like or even hate this album. Personally, I am a fan of basically all genres and am willing to go pretty far outside country to enjoy this album. But I'd love to see them rein it in a bit and return to their countrier sound after this "experiment" is over. 4.0/5.0

Country Single Predictions
01 "Homegrown"
02 "Loving You Easy"
03 "Bittersweet"/"Dress Blues"
04 "Castaway"
If 05 "Wildfire"

Other possibilities are "Young and Crazy", "Remedy", "I'll Be Your Man", and "Tomorrow Never Comes (Acoustic Version)"

Rock Single Predictions
01 "Heavy Is The Head (feat. Chris Cornell)"
02 "Junkyard"

Pop Single Predictions
01 "Beautiful Drug"
02 "Tomorrow Never Comes"

[someguy]

I've finally had the chance to listen to the album a couple of times, and I like it. It is different for the ZBB, but maybe not quite as different as I was expecting based on others' reactions. There is nothing I like as much as "Homegrown" on the album, but that one has become one of my favourite ZBB songs, and one of my favourite singles of the year. The release of "Loving You Easy" to country radio second was a great choice, as I think those are the two most immediate and radio friendly tracks on the album. For future releases, I can see "Castaway", "Remedy" and "Wildfire" doing well.

I like "Mango Tree" a lot, though I hear it as more big band than jazz. I'm not super knowledgable on either though, so I guess I don't know for sure. Either way, I don't see it being successful as a radio single to any format.

"Heavy Is The Head" is the perfect rock single to release, and so I'm glad that they went with that first. They probably have a couple other options, but I think that it made the most sense to get that out there as a radio single before the album came out.

Overall, I like the album (it's probably my #2 for the year at this point). I hope the ZBB know what they're doing though, because I could see it slightly alienating country radio without them having a steady backup plan in place.

[onebuffalo]

Does anyone know the first week's sales of The Foundation? I know it peaked at #2 country and #9 on the top 200 charts. The Zac Brown Band would enjoy #1 debuts on BOTH charts with You Get What You Give (153,000) and Uncaged (234,000). Thanks in advance!

[onebuffalo]

#1 country and #1 top 200 CD with 214,000 sold. Congratulations, Zac Brown Band.

[Ten Pound Hammer]

It was nice of them to get Sebastian the crab to sing backing vocals on Castaway.

(And now I've just ruined that song for you...)

[onebuffalo]

May 6, 2015 11:16:14 GMT -5 Ten Pound Hammer said:

It was nice of them to get Sebastian the crab to sing backing vocals on Castaway.

(And now I've just ruined that song for you...)

It was shellfish of you to do that.

[Uncle Lumpy]

Damnit! That last bad pun , instantly put this song in my head...

[Deleted]

May 6, 2015 10:06:03 GMT -5 onebuffalo said:

#1 country and #1 top 200 CD with 214,000 sold. Congratulations, Zac Brown Band.

I had 3 separate ticket transactions on ticketmaster for these guys (not all my tix, obviously) but I received 3 options to redeem for a free copy of the CD.

So does that stuff add to the total? If every ticket purchase comes with a free CD...that could be thousands of CD "sales" per concert.

[someguy]

Jun 7, 2015 16:15:55 GMT -5 @nickv1025 said:

May 6, 2015 10:06:03 GMT -5 onebuffalo said:

#1 country and #1 top 200 CD with 214,000 sold. Congratulations, Zac Brown Band.

I had 3 separate ticket transactions on ticketmaster for these guys (not all my tix, obviously) but I received 3 options to redeem for a free copy of the CD.

So does that stuff add to the total? If every ticket purchase comes with a free CD...that could be thousands of CD "sales" per concert.

It only counts when it's actually redeemed, but yeah it contributes to the sales total. It's been done before by a few pop artists....Cher, Madonna and Prince come to mind, but I'm sure there are others.

[Deleted]

This album is really seeing longevity with its sales. HITS is projecting another 19-22k sold this week, and a move back to #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. It should surpass the 400k mark in sales this week.

[dm2081]

Jun 20, 2015 23:38:24 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

This album is really seeing longevity with its sales. HITS is projecting another 19-22k sold this week, and a move back to #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. It should surpass the 400k mark in sales this week.

I'm sure this album will receive some Grammy nominations too, so the sales should continue to be strong for quite some time IMO.  

[trebor]

I've only come across today to fully listen to the album in quiet from A to Z. 
Have intentionally not read any of the posts there.
I was like paralysed and in shock and awe during 16 songs: this is a master-piece; Zac Brown has come up with a modern classic that transcends genres.
I'm still under a spell and 35 scrobbles deep into the album! I'm letting the good vibes sink in and maybe write something more detailed tomorrow! 

[Deleted]

Jun 21, 2015 0:16:31 GMT -5 dm2081 said:

Jun 20, 2015 23:38:24 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

This album is really seeing longevity with its sales. HITS is projecting another 19-22k sold this week, and a move back to #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. It should surpass the 400k mark in sales this week.

I'm sure this album will receive some Grammy nominations too, so the sales should continue to be strong for quite some time IMO.  

I've seen a lot of high praise here for this album (including trebor's post just above this one), and I know ZBB is usually a Grammy 'darling' (at least when it comes to nominations), but I'm not sure if this one will get any nominations (I'll get to that in a minute). It seems that there are quite a few people who love it, but I think there are a lot of people like me who just didn't really know what to think of the album. I don't necessarily think it's a bad album, but it's just not for me. I listened to it twice through when it was first released, and if 2 listens doesn't persuade me to buy an album, chances are I'll never buy it.

I've been a pretty big ZBB fan, though (I own their first 3 albums), so maybe I'll go back and give it another try at some point and see if it grows on me.

Anyway, the reason I'm not sure if Jekyll + Hyde will any get Grammy nominations is because it's actually received quite a few poor reviews from critics. Even though I didn't really like the album, I was still quite shocked to see that it only has a 56/100 for its aggregate score on Metacritic. Billboard and All Music gave it pretty favorable reviews, but Slant Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times weren't overly fond of it, and PopMatters gave it an extremely negative review/score.

Uncaged won ZBB a Grammy for Best Country Album, and at least that one had a pretty good score of 71 on Metacritic. That one got great reviews from Roughstock, Slant Magazine, Taste of Country, and USA Today (and I find it interesting that, of these 4, only Slant has given a review for Jekyll + Hyde). Neither The Foundation nor You Get What You Give has an aggregate score on Metacritic, but just looking at the Wikipedia pages for both of those albums, it appears that they both garnered more favorable reviews than even the Grammy-winning Uncaged.

For me personally, this album just totally missed the mark. I really, really like "Homegrown"...and then "Loving You Easy" is decent enough. There were a few other tracks that I liked as well, but on the whole, it's just not an album that I found myself enjoying. And I'm guessing that a lot of the more country-leaning fans they've made over the last 5-7 years feel similarly.

[someguy]

Interesting. I hadn't realized that their scores were so low. I still think that they have a better chance of getting nominated than not, just because of their reputation, but I agree that it's not as sure of a thing as I would've thought.

At this point, I'd think that Kacey Musgraves is the front runner, but I still expect to see the ZBB grab a nomination.

[Deleted]

Jul 3, 2015 23:38:04 GMT -5 someguy said:

Interesting. I hadn't realized that their scores were so low. I still think that they have a better chance of getting nominated than not, just because of their reputation, but I agree that it's not as sure of a thing as I would've thought.

At this point, I'd think that Kacey Musgraves is the front runner, but I still expect to see the ZBB grab a nomination.

Don't forget Chris Stapleton -- I think he's a lock for a nomination, same as Kacey. I also think Little Big Town's Pain Killer has a great chance to score a nomination. Another contender, in my opinion, is Sam Hunt's Montevallo. I agree with those who don't think it's very country-sounding, but it's gotten pretty good reviews and has seen a lot of commercial success, so I think it has a good chance of getting nominated. With that said, I highly doubt it would win.

Other possibilities would be veteran albums: Garth's Man Against Machine (solid sales, above average reviews), Reba's Love Somebody, and possibly even Dwight Yoakam's Second Hand Heart.

And then, unless I'm missing a few independently-released albums, the other likely contenders haven't been released yet. The eligibility period is from October 2014 through September 2015. Ashley Monroe's The Blade is likely to receive a lot of praise, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Alan Jackson's Angels & Alcohol be a critics' favorite as well.

[someguy]

I agree with your assessment. On my phone now (I'll edit on more detail when I get back to my computer soon), but right now I would expect:

Kacey Musgraves
Sam Hunt (locks)

ZBB (pretty sure)

Reba McEntire
Chris Stapleton
Little Big Town (fighting for the last slots)

Of course that's now, with a few months left to go. That's how I think it would look at this moment though.

[Deleted]

I'd rank 'em like this:

Likely Grammy Nominations for Country Album
Kacey Musgraves' Pageant Material (lock)
Chris Stapleton's Traveller (lock)

Little Big Town's Pain Killer (moderately likely)
Sam Hunt's Montevallo (moderately likely)

Zac Brown Band's Jekyll + Hyde

I think LBT has a much better chance than ZBB does. "Girl Crush" has been so huge for LBT, and while Pain Killer's sales have been moderate at best (a bit over 250k so far, which is a pretty steep drop compared to the 1 million+ that Tornado sold), it's got an impressive 83 on Metacritic, which is actually a tad higher than the 81 that Pageant Material has. Not that the Grammys go strictly by Metacritic scores, but still.

I'd personally put ZBB in 5th right now, but I think the last 2-3 spots are still wide open yet. And again, I think somebody like Ashley Monroe is likely to claim a spot. If Luke Bryan's Kill The Lights gets average or even above average views, it could potentially sneak in (because we all know it's gonna sell a ton), but I have my doubts. I'm just saying that I'm not going to completely rule out the most commercially successful country artist at the moment.

Others like Carrie Underwood and Brandy Clark would have to release new albums before the end of September in order to be in contention, and I doubt that that happens. Most likely their albums will come out no sooner than October.

[dm2081]

jhomes87 perhaps I should have been more specific. While I still think the album has a chance to earn a nomination for a Grammy, I was more specifically thinking about Grammy nominations for the singles. I'd be stunned if "Heavy Is The Head" doesn't receive a nomination for best rock performance. I think "Homegrown" has a shot at best country performance or some similar type of award as well. I was also maybe thinking too far down the road about single #3, which I think could potentially be "Dress Blues" or maybe even "Bittersweet", which both would seem extremely award worthy IMO. I realize now though that a 3rd single won't make the cutoff point, so would probably have to be a contender for the next Grammy Awards.

[Deleted]

Jul 4, 2015 0:34:14 GMT -5 dm2081 said:

jhomes87 perhaps I should have been more specific. While I still think the album has a chance to earn a nomination for a Grammy, I was more specifically thinking about Grammy nominations for the singles. I'd be stunned if "Heavy Is The Head" doesn't receive a nomination for best rock performance. I think "Homegrown" has a shot at best country performance or some similar type of award as well. I was also maybe thinking too far down the road about single #3, which I think could potentially be "Dress Blues" or maybe even "Bittersweet", which both would seem extremely award worthy IMO. 

Oh, obviously the ZBB will be in contention in several categories. I don't find those categories to be as easy to predict, though, since there are so many choices (there are a lot more singles released in a year than albums released in a year).

[Deleted]

This album has really grown on me a lot. I was pretty indifferent at first but it's grown on me more and more with each listen. Aside from "Tomorrow Never Comes", "One Day", and "Young & Wild", I think it's a very strong album. Definitely a weird trip but an exciting one.