After 3 years, fringy-faced Country mystery-man, Orville Peck, is roaring back into the scene with his sophomore album, Bronco. In the time between his debut, Pony, and his new record, he released the EP, Show Pony. Intended to be a "middle sister" and bridge to Bronco, it was hard to pick up on what exactly you could expect from his long-awaited second album. Show Pony hopped around from lonely crooner, "No Glory in the West," to full-blown Country-Pop with "Legends Never Die," while being accompanied by the queen of 90's Country, Shania Twain. Or maybe fans expected something similar to his Synthpop-Country cover of Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy." In the end, Bronco took the Country sound Peck was inspired by and paid tribute to on Pony and he makes it his own.
Peck bolsters his growth as a songwriter with the lead single, "C'mon Baby, Cry." One of the weaker aspects of Pony were the choruses that at times felt a tad flat and just extensions of the verses, while here, the track elevates allowing Peck to let his voice soar and fill all the available space. This time around, he's pulled from other influences besides Country like the Marabi-inspired track, "Lafayette" to even a cross between Post-Punk and Country with album opener, "Daytona Sand." The individual end results of his experimentation are grade-A, but it does make Bronco feel a bit scattered when listening as a single body of work. With many of those songs appearing in the first half of the album; this 15-track record starts to feel more front-loaded and hurts the pacing.
I sense my attention starting to waver about midway through after the bucking title track, "Bronco." There's a lull that seeps in with the slower, mid-tempo run of, "Trample Out the Days," "Blush," and "Hexie Mountains." They're not bad songs, but having them back-to-back only to lead into an even slower ballad in "Let Me Drown" weighs down the album a bit. Now, "Let Me Drown" on the other hand is, in my opinion, the showpiece of the record. There's a fragility to the track that is held together by Peck's passionate vocal performance and a beautiful string arrangement. It's as if you were watching people cross an old, rickety bridge that's being supported by one beam. Just staring and waiting for it to collapse, but it holds strong. It's captivating and truly breathtaking. After such a cooldown, it's hard to follow it up with "Any Turn's" striding patter of lyrics similar to Garth Brooks' "Ain't Goin' Down (Til the Sun Comes Up)."
Orville Peck closes the album with bandmate, Bria Salmena, for a duet with "All I Can Say." The closer feels more like an Orville Peck and Salmena track, whereas "Legends Never Die" felt more like a Shania Twain song that Orville got to sing on. Perhaps it's the more downtrodden nature and themes that Orville Peck leans towards, especially on Bronco, but it fits more fluidly with Peck's repertoire than the latter.
I would argue that Bronco's strongest tracks hit higher highs than anything off Pony, but his debut was a more cohesive record. Bronco oftentimes starts to feel a little long and would have benefitted from cutting a few of the weaker songs are or even just toying with the sequencing more. Regardless, the album is still loaded with great material, and Orville Peck has clearly branched out from his Indie-Country origins and improved as a songwriter and vocalist. It will be exciting to see where he goes from here.
