Living your life based on the expectations of others rather than what\u2019s in your heart is a recipe for unhappiness.<\/p>\n
Brothers Osborne, the musical duo comprised of siblings T.J. (lead vocals \/ rhythm guitar) and John (lead guitar \/ backing vocals) Osborne, has charted a string of country hits since releasing their debut single in 2013, followed by albums in 2016 (Pawn Shop<\/i>), 2018 (Port Saint Joe<\/i>) and 2020 (Skeletons<\/i>). Then in February 2021 T.J. came out, becoming the first openly gay artist signed to a major country music label. At the time, I\u2019d never heard a note played by the pair, but I picked up this album both out of curiosity\u2014to see how the Osbornes had been navigating playing to the notoriously conservative country crowd\u2014and out of a desire to support T.J.\u2019s courage. The resulting listen offered a helpful reminder that personal courage and artistic ambition are two different things. <\/p>\n
The aspect of modern mainstream country music that bugs me the most isn\u2019t that it\u2019s barely distinguishable as a musical genre any more, having borrowed so much from rock, blues, folk, r&b and others that you could basically slap a fiddle, banjo, and\/or steel guitar on almost anything and if the singer sings about the right set of prescribed topics with the right kind of friendly twang in their delivery, it\u2019ll \u201cpass\u201d for country. No, what bugs me the most is that mainstream country music has devolved into pure formula, paint-by-numbers songwriting that rarely ranges beyond the same old obvious tropes: the cheating, the drinking, the brawling, the trucks and horses and honky tonks. There\u2019s a cartoonish predictability to the entire exercise.<\/p>\n
The Brothers Osborne are talented, committed performers, and Skeletons<\/i> has its moments, but more often than not, to this listener it feels like formula. I understand the attraction; there\u2019s a reason why certain conventions are adopted, just like there\u2019s a reason why clich\u00e9s exist; they\u2019re an easy shorthand for commonly understood ideas and they tend to resonate with a wide swath of people. But I usually don\u2019t find much to admire about formula unless it\u2019s executed exceptionally well, and I didn\u2019t find much about Skeletons<\/i> that I\u2019d call exceptional, though I did find some things to enjoy.<\/p>\n
The first half of the album leans heavily on formula. Opener \u201cLighten Up\u201d offers a chunky barroom country-blues that might have had more charm if they hadn\u2019t slapped filters on the vocals, which makes me crazy regardless of genre; just sing<\/i>. There\u2019s a positive message in the song\u2019s anthemic chorus; I\u2019m just not a fan of the over-the-top production. Hit single \u201cAll Night\u201d follows with a countrified ZZ Top boogie backbeat; it\u2019s sturdy enough musically but comes off feeling calculated (\u201cOkay, we need another concert singalong number, so let\u2019s punch up that chorus hook\u2026\u201d). \u201cAll The Good Ones Are\u201d is a rare bird on this album, a tune that smacks of formula but manages to transcend it with tight construction and an infectious sense of fun. <\/p>\n
If only it wasn\u2019t followed by \u201cI\u2019m Not For Everyone,\u201d a string-of-clich\u00e9s number that feels like a bland rewrite of dozens of other \u201cI\u2019m such a rebellious bad boy\u201d anthems. The title track is where they stretch for the first time, opening like it\u2019s going to be an arena rocker before going outlaw country in tone. The after-the-fact irony of T.J. singing about skeletons \u201cin your closet\u201d is hard to miss even if the punchline here is a groaner of a dad pun (\u201cSkeletons in your closet \/ And I\u2019ve got a bone to pick with them\u201d). And then we\u2019re back to pure formula with the ambling, woozy \u201calcoholic celebrating his relapse\u201d number \u201cBack On The Bottle.\u201d Sigh.<\/p>\n
Things gradually improve in the second half as the Osbornes begin to sound less like a Nashville songwriting machine and more like artists exploring ideas. The rippling, tidal acoustic ballad \u201cHigh Note\u201d offers a positive message, even if it ends up feeling somewhat by the numbers. \u201cMuskrat Greene\u201d is a welcome outlier, a roadrunner of an instrumental featuring speed-riffing guitar and piano. Its breakneck pace persists into \u201cDead Man\u2019s Curve,\u201d though the latter amounts to a double-time parade of country-boy fan service; there\u2019s abundant adrenaline and posturing, but precious little substance.<\/p>\n
The final quarter is where the brothers seem to hit their stride. The funked up \u201cMake It A Good One\u201d is a highlight, delivering a timely \u201ccarpe diem\u201d message with exuberance and panache; I dug it. The playful r&b\/gospel-influenced \u201cHatin\u2019 Somebody\u201d gains extra impact when you consider the context behind lines like \u201cHatin\u2019 somebody never got nobody nowhere.\u201d And dusty acoustic closer \u201cOld Man\u2019s Boots\u201d is a quality piece of songwriting in spite of some familiar tropes, a heartfelt mid-tempo story song about the Osbornes\u2019 hardworking dad.<\/p>\n
The thing about creative rules is, they were made to be broken; that\u2019s when the good stuff happens, when you challenge or bust out of those conventions. My hope for the Brothers Osborne is that their chart success will allow them to become as free in terms of the music they choose to make as T.J. now is in sharing the truth of his life. Maybe they\u2019re just more comfortable making familiar, formulaic music, but most artists I\u2019ve ever spoken with are hoping to create something fresh and distinctive that leaves a mark. The Brothers Osborne seem like they\u2019ve got the creative juice to get there, and I hope they will one day; for now, let\u2019s count Skeletons<\/i> as one more step toward freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10773],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46434","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-brothers-osborne","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46434"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}