Zach Bryan- Young Manhood & Other Donatable Organs
Label: Warner
Producers: Zach Bryan, Jamie McLaughlin, Eddie Spear
As the undisputed most prolific superstar in music today, it should come as no surprise that, despite launching the year 2026 with a twenty-five track studio album, Zach Bryan would still grace us with another new project before the year was out. Just as much as the double-album concept has made a notable comeback during the 2020s, so too has the extended-play, with Bryan being central to the modern relevancy of both mediums. It’s been common-place in his catalog to pivot between both formats, with this release of Young Manhood & Other Donatable Organs marking his fourth EP to date. But unlike most EP releases of the last several decades, Bryan’s sets are not merely customary clean-ups of remixed singles and cutting-room-floor leftovers. Rather, they are singular, purposeful bodies of work with their own vital contributions to his overall artistic story.
So too then does Young Manhood’s unique identity stem far beyond its unusual titling. In fact, musically and narratively, this set proves to represent as transformational a turning point as any project Bryan has released to date, poetically illustrated by the album artwork, which finds his presumed new incarnation aiming a gun at his former self . Tying this concept together is his his well-documented confirmation that this is the first collection of songs that he’s penned since quitting alcohol, as well as the expressed anxiety over whether his songwriting would suffer without the influence of that substance. The eight songs gathered here quickly prove that’s of no concern, and in actuality provide a whole new perspective and lyrical muse for his songs.
Though the record is not limited to this space, the central pillars immediately reveal themselves to be reflections on personal growth and an evolving life outlook, with sobriety serving as the crux for a clear-eyed examination of one’s journey to date. This comes across prominently and via Bryan’s typically rugged and soulful manner on tracks like the cosmic opener, “Lodi When”, where he realizes he has to be his own savior from past demons. Or, especially in the gut-wrenching “Is the Blue Tangled Up in You”. “Tangled” is a moment very-much tethered to Bryan’s youth and his relationship with his parents, not just directly as people, but also their own individual pains and sadnesses. It confronts the very real issue of those struggles being inherited and woven into us from prior generations, and the challenge it becomes to reconcile them within our own life story. With its clever titular homage to Bob Dylan’s 1975 touchstone, it’s easily among the most prophetic moments Bryan’s given us thus far, which is of course, no small statement.
As on past records, Bryan also finds ways to grapple with these deeper concerns within the confines of rousing, anthemic moments like “Dog Days” and “Backwards”. Or, on “Robot Killed the Working Man”, which cuttingly emphasizes AI’s elevation of the generations-long concern over technological progress displacing the economic prosperity of the working class. When he brutally ponders “Can’t you see what the giant step for humanity did?”, it cuts as deeply in 2026 as it would have in 1986.
The most buzz-worthy aspects of Manhood however certainly prove to be two high-profile and long-awaited collaborations; one with Turnpike Troubadours and the other with Lana Del Rey. Duetting with Evan Felker and the Troubadours on “Plainsman”, the track is a faithful blend of both acts’ musical personas, with a classic, folk-tinged country theme centering around a blue-collar man’s infinite connection to both their physical and philosophical roots. “Lies” meanwhile is already showing its destiny as a new, autumnal classic, and evokes the great male-female dynamic of Bryan’s earlier smash with Kacey Musgraves. It’s a beautifully haunting track, colored with gorgeous strings, sullen piano, and the denial of a relationship’s brutal toxicity, even in the face of both party’s self-awareness of it. Lana’s moody, weepy delivers bring out the best in Bryan vocally, and highlights the passionate tension of his most heightened deliveries.
The set closes with the reflectively resolute “You’ll Get By”, an urgent but peaceful plea for us all to remember what’s most importantly vital to the life experience. It’s those quiet and simple moments of familial connection and peaceful solitude that we must prioritize over the noise of our darkest vices and demons. When Bryan muses that “The coming of age is another practice in patience, and learnin’ how to grow”, it documents not just a vital moment of artistic growth, but one of personal and human maturity as well. It also emphatically silences any concerns that such a personal evolution would impact the power of his songwriting. As ever before, this EP maintains the fact that Zach Bryan has something purposeful to say on each and every project, whether it be twenty songs in length, or twenty minutes.
Track Listing:
- “Lodi When” (Zach Bryan)
- “Robot Killed the Working Man” (Bryan)
- “Lies” featuring Lana Del Rey (Bryan, Lana Del Rey)
- “Dog Days” (Bryan)
- “Backwards” (Bryan)
- “Plainsman” featuring Turnpike Troubadours (Bryan, Evan Felker)
- “Is the Blue Tangled in You?” (Bryan)
- “You’ll Get By” (Bryan)
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