Bronco
| Orville Peck
Bronco
Bronco is the second studio album by South African country music artist Orville Peck, released on April 8, 2022 by Sub Pop and Columbia Records. -WIkipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Working with producer Jay Joyce and Nashville session musicians, the masked cult figure adopts the widescreen scale of mainstream country while stretching his eccentricities to their limits.
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NME
Masked man bares his soul with retro-country razzle-dazzle.
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Sputnik Music
Orville Peck isn’t hiding behind the glitz and glam - He is glitz and glam. But he’s also sadness and joy and human and so many other wonderful, real things. Through his music, he’s invited us to be a part of all of it. Saddle up and enjoy the ride.
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The Line of Best Fit
The banjos and slide guitar of "Hexie Mountains" are ready made for the open road, and "C’Mon Baby, Cry" feels like an instant classic, urging for vulnerability and somehow bring Roy Orbison back to life in the process. It’s a tried and tested sound but Peck’s perspective feels utterly fresh, and suggests perhaps all of the glitz and camp are actually just Peck being true to himself.
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303 Magazine
When it was all said and done, the rhinestone cowboy had delivered on his promise of a Bronco with a symphony of stampeding stallions and a performance worthy of winning the rodeo champion trophy buckle.
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Scene Point Blank
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.
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musicOMH
The fringed marvel is back with a theatrical, expansive and subversive masterpiece that reminds us just why he is the undisputed king of queer country.
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Beats Per Minute
He remains a fabulous fashion icon, yes, and the queerness of his music is still radiant and charming as ever. But on Bronco, the country cowboy wink and nod seems to have lost its elusive essence. He has to do away with the platitudes and vagueness, both musically and lyrically, to be remarkable moving forward. There’s so much talent and story hidden behind the mask, but this album isn’t Orville Peck at his truest.
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DIY Magazine
Now a household name, however, ‘Bronco’ arrives to prove why this cowboy is gonna be sticking around for a long time. Inspired by “writing in isolation and going through and ultimately emerging from a challenging personal time,” ‘Bronco’ flits between theatricality and poignancy, almost every song sounding like it could score a Western’s pivotal moment with ease.
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The Needle Drop
Orville Peck is bringing a panache to country music that few artists are.
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Treblezine
Bronco doesn’t feel like an evolutionary dead end but a temporary stopping point on a fertile road; it feels safe to continue to place our faith in Peck’s creative capabilities. And with music for the gloom of the night and the honeyed sky of twilight, who knows what colors might come next? It’s good to feel excited.
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Gigwise
With this bold, brash and liberated second album full of love and loss, cowboy romanticism, California sorrow and candid homosexuality, the enigmatic desperado continues his rise with a greater confidence and warmth than before. Though a touch sappy in places and musically underwhelming in others, Bronco is overall another triumph for Orville Peck.
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AllMusic
Orville Peck's image as the glamorous and subversive masked man of country music still feels a bit gimmicky, but in the grand show biz tradition, it's a character that puts the spotlight firmly on a genuine talent, and Bronco is a glorious achievement that fulfills Peck's promise and then some.
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Stereoboard
It’s another testament to his ability to thoughtfully map out his own trauma. Despair never sounded so good.
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Under the Radar Magazine
As a result, Bronco became a bellow from the deepest of canyons to the highest of peaks of his soul, “running wild” and fully in stride. It’s also a wholly cinematic experience: collaborating with director Austin Peters, Peck made a series of music videos that add another storytelling layer to his songs.
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Spectrum Culture
Though the album is a worthwhile inclusion to the Peck canon, ignoring the blandness that afflicts a great deal of Bronco is impossible.
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Exclaim!
From the get-go, the circus surrounding Bronco had it poised for billboard success. And yet, while more than capable of wandering down that road any time he chooses, Peck has still put himself first. And it's for the best: he may have ditched the grit that got him here, but the glam he's donning now suits him just fine. While the horse remains untamed, the reins have clearly been fastened.
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Flood Magazine
The “outlaw cowboy” brings to his game the opulence of a big label with an explosive, evocative production tone crossing Spaghetti Western plains and a mountain range’s open skies.
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Tuned Up
Like most albums of this scale, Bronco is patchy at times. The front half hold most of the action and more memorable songs, while the second half slows a bit and largely plays toward sparser arrangements or more straightforward types of songs. Even so, Peck’s ambition and creative spirit are not hidden. The record feels more balanced and consistently more interesting than its predecessor. The highs are highs; the lows are more bearable. There are loud moments. There are times you’ll find your ego shattered. But at the end of the day, Peck is not content with the status quo and is perhaps ushering in a new standard. And it’s not too late to get on the bandwagon.
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Country Queer
Instead, Peck, his band, and Joyce whip up a delicious retro stew that’ll have you clamoring for seconds. In the end, he emerges bigger, bolder, and more self-assured, with something wholly his own. It’s a fucking miracle.
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