The fact that the
Zac Brown Band felt compelled to title their 2021 album
The Comeback is a tacit admission that things aren't entirely well in the
ZBB camp. A commercial powerhouse from 2008 to 2017,
Zac Brown Band were fixtures on both the country and pop charts, a situation that led
Brown to stretch his musical wings. At first, this meant he pushed
ZBB to rock a bit hard, then jam a bit longer, but soon he heard the siren call of dance music, sending him down the path toward the bizarre electro-pop project
Sir Rosevelt, a busman's holiday that informed not only 2018's
The Owl by
ZBB but the near-simultaneously released solo album The Controversy by
Zac himself. The
Sir Rosevelt-inspired triumvirate was enough to pump the breaks on
ZBB's momentum, which in turn was enough for
Zac Brown to get back to where he once belonged. Hence,
The Comeback, a record designed to reassure wary fans that the group still can make rock, country, folk, and pop the way they used to back in the
Obama administration. The allusions to older songs are shameless. Take "Same Boat," a surgical fusion of the beachy "Toes" and back porch picking of "Chicken Fried" designed to stir up warm nostalgic feelings among fans. That's also the case with the rest of the record, which alternates between harmony-heavy ballads, brawny (but not burly) arena rockers, and mellow pop tunes, all filled with homilies to faith, family, and home.
Brown leans into clichés a little too hard and never can resist hitting the nail squarely on the head -- witness "Fun Having Fun," whose meaning is underscored over and over -- but he's savvy enough of a craftsman to make this blatant pandering effective and maybe even a little fun, if you're in the right mood. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine