Best New Music

Did Zac Brown Just Release A Surprise Pure Pop Album?

Photo by Andy Sapp

Grammy Award-winning artist Zac Brown has launched The Controversy, his first-ever solo album featuring his signature dynamic artistic range and unique pop melodies.ย The Controversyย is independently released on all digital platforms by No Reserve Inc., part of Zac Brown Collective.

To createย The Controversy, Brown collaborated with a number of producers and writers across the industry including Sasha Sirota, Jason โ€˜Poo Bearโ€™ Boyd, Shroom, Benny Blanco, Max Martin and others, further exploring genre-bending sounds and showing fans his ever-widening musical sensibilities. Collaborators on โ€œTimeโ€ include Skrillex and Jason โ€˜Poo Bearโ€™ Boyd, and Benny Blanco and Andrew Watt produced the toe-tapping, catchy โ€œSpend It All On You.โ€ โ€œLionโ€™s Den,โ€ which Brown describes as theatrical and cinematic, was produced by Brown and Shroom and features Brownโ€™s longtime bandmates on the track as well. The majority ofย The Controversyย was recorded at Brownโ€™s own Southern Ground Nashville recording studio.

โ€œIโ€™ve always been influenced by all genres and never want to limit myself to a single type of music. I love my band and love creating music with them, but we all pursue our own thing in addition to what we put out together and support each otherโ€™s creative endeavors. You can actually hear the guys playing on parts ofย The Controversy,โ€ said Zac Brown. โ€œThis album is an outlet for me to explore pop music, a broad category in its own right, without expectations.ย The Controversyย is a reflection of the diversity of sounds that I love, and the culmination of my work with vastly talented new collaborators. I hope you have as much fun listening to it as I did creating it.โ€

Brown createdย The Controversyย to celebrate musical diversity, challenge audiences who expect only one type of sound from an artist and explore a new genre of music without creative boundaries. Zac and Zac Brown Band, who just releasedย The Owl,ย ย will continue to publish music and tour together as a group.ย 

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The Controversyย Track List:ย 

  1. Nowhere Left to Go
  2. Time
  3. Spend It All On You
  4. Swayze (feat. Sasha Sirota)
  5. Lionโ€™s Den
  6. Dream Sellinโ€™ (feat. Poo Bear and Sasha Sirota)
  7. This Far
  8. Always and Never

The Controversyย is now available on digital streaming platforms. To stream, download or listen visit:ย https://zb.lnk.to/Controversy

Read the BRAND NEW ZBB interview HERE.ย 

Check out the revealing 2010 American Songwriter cover story interview with Zac Brown Band HERE.