Trampling away from the mist of his past albums, 'Bronco' gallops with the polish, expansion, and maturity that makes Orville Peck an impressive artist in his own right. Cramming through his personal details of queer romance and vulnerability, it instills an embrace of the queer cowboy moving along its ups and downs.
The presence of queer country has been in its rising form ever since the late 2010s and early 2020s, allowing the rather conservative footsteps of country music to provide some wide-open arms for the queer community and be met with some color and approachability on the country scene. It’s that kind of representation that has been needed ever since the groundbreaking mark from Lavender Country, and now you’re going to see that representation balloon up with acts like Brandi Carlile, Katie Pruitt, Adeem The Artist, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Lydia Loveless and others more that showcase their own stories and voices. Forgot to mention one of those artists that broke through and sparked enough attention thanks to his gay cowboy bravado, Orville Peck.
He garnered everybody’s attention with his 2019 debut record, ‘Pony’. Bringing along with his cowboy swagger and hazy country melodies and production is a queerness explored with loneliness and shyness, explored even further with ‘Show Pony’, the EP that was released in 2020. That loneliness soon becomes quite a nightmare as COVID struck that same year and the reflection of everybody’s personal downpours seeps through, and Orville Peck has certainly been there as well and may possibly be from his benefit as that reflection flips around.
If Pony and Show Pony displays a shy display of Orville’s emotions, Bronco is the record that lets loose of that restraint, putting all of those emotions in plain sight. Not in a bad way as well, as that built-up confidence puts Orville Peck stepping into more bigger, adventurous, and expressive writing, melodies, and production that works wonders. Because at this point, he’s not the cowboy that hides away, but the cowboy that now knows the way that he’s going towards.
Bronco brings Orville Peck most expressive tunes to date, riding on colorful melodies that are brimming with catchy hooks. The album opener ‘Daytona Sand’ introduces Orville’s brimming vocals alongside his sense of queer charm and wisdom with surf-rock grooves, chimes, and guitar melodies. The freeing sentiments of vulnerability in ‘C’mon Baby, Cry’ is absolutely remarkable, Orville’s expressive vocals are met with the best hook he has ever done amidst stomping grooves from the guitars and drums. ‘Bronco’ puts the melodies aflame, with energetic vocals alongside country-surf compositions reflecting the looseness of Orville’s attitude peppered across the entire record. And the patter melodic structure of ‘Any Turn’ amidst shuffling tambourines, percussions, and guitars makes sense for a song collaging chaotic details that occurred in Orville’s tours.
That confidence extends towards the vulnerable feelings that he shelters in the past albums, now able to roam through them and find some courage in them. The lingering effects of abusive relationships loom through ‘The Curse of the Blackened Eye’, slowing the pace down with the tempered melodic lines of the guitar strums and thumping percussion lifts up Orville’s soulful vocal lines. The simplicity of the guitar strums and string sweeps in ‘City of Gold’ puts the focus of the pensive loneliness on display with thoughts of finding new lovers, getting older, and burning the past behind him. The misty atmosphere brought by shuffling guitars and drums on ‘Hexie Mountain’ brings along the discomfort Orville felt from the dread and depressive thoughts in his own head. The vulnerable cracks seep through the most in ‘Let Me Drown’, the presence of pianos and strings pushes Orville’s impassioned vocals to the brink, especially when he’s willing to pull himself down in the most chaotic time in his life.
But even then, he still doesn’t let that waver him, embracing whatever memories and influences that he has with a delight as he tries to move on from the pain that he has felt before. The memories picked up of a past relationship on ‘Lafayette’ is accompanied by yet another surf-rock groove from the guitars and drums. The slight relaxing sigh in ‘Iris Rose’ brought by the landscapes is accompanied by melodic warmth from the horns, guitar strums, and marching drums. ‘Outta time’ touches more upon quaint, slower moments as the smoldering guitar lines and pleasant drum patterns puts Orville’s vocals in a relaxed, but still powerful state. ‘Kalahari Down’ puts more details of Orville’s hometown in South Africa, reminiscing in it as the strings push through the calming guitar and drum melody lines with an elegant grandness. ‘Trample Out The Days’ starts its conversational reflections with bleary guitar strums, only for the drums and additional guitar lines to crash in, making the track feel riveting as it ends. Orville’s thoughts of queer love ‘Blush’ takes center stage as he still has memories of the ex in his mind, still struggling to understand men while still trying out how to love from time to time, all with playful melodies stomping through from the guitars and drums. The narrative then concludes with ‘All I Can Say’, where all that is left is to say goodbye due to the love not being there than it used to be as Orville’s vocals synergize well with Bria Salmena’s vocals. Also helps that the song itself ends the record incredibly well, with all the powerful vocal melodies accompanied by the guitar strums and drum textures.
It’s almost close to being an impeccable record, but there are slight clumsy points in the record that don’t put this record to being perfect. Luckily, it’s only a tad few. While the melodic structure and performance on ‘Any Turn’ are energetic and quite refreshing, the lyrical aspect doesn’t really mesh well with the rest of the album, where it can feel a little bit out of place from the themes presented in the record. ‘Lafayette’ does fit thematically, but melodically it can be a little clumsy, especially with the hook that sounds a little underwhelming.
Bronco starts strong and keeps that quality to the very end. It not only showcases just how much that confidence improves upon Orville Peck’s talent as a singer but also loosens up his ability to pull off writing that opens up different dimensions of his vulnerability and his queer romanticism that he hasn’t able to pull off in his past records. That, along with a bigger production that lifts up those performances and emotions also provides the polish on melodies and textures that finally brings the tunes to an entirely different level of refinement that Orville Peck really needed to effectively put forth his already potent writing and vocal chops. This progression in his artistic trajectory not only puts more hopeful excellence on the road but also puts his adoration for his country influences and stories in a way that creates new stories for queer country musicians like him in this new era of country music. It’s an extremely tuneful and heartfelt set of country songs splashed with queer flair, and it’s great to say that Orville Peck breaks through and stands out amidst the best of this year.
Favorite Tracks: Daytona Sand, C’mon Baby Cry, All I Can Say, The Curse of the Blackened Eye, Outta Time, Iris Rose, Kalahari Down, Bronco, Hexie Mountains, Let Me Drown, Blush, Trample Out The Days, City of Gold
Least Favorite Track: Lafayette