Zach Bryan Sings About ‘Holding His Tongue’ as He Teases New Music

While many of us have been enjoying a quiet, restful Christmas break, Zach Bryan has been hard at work on new music as he takes time away from the road, following the conclusion of his hugely popular 2024 Quittin‘ Time tour earlier in December.

Not only did the Oklahoma singer-songwriter surprise listeners with a new project, 24 (Live), on December 20th, but he's also been teasing fans with a flurry of unreleased songs.

Zach Bryan's latest snippet, which remains untitled, finds the ‘Revival’ hitmaker crooning forlornly about how he encountered the Devil in Tulsa, but even Satan's nefarious methods and actions can't be compared to the cruelty of the person he sings to.

This dropped the day after the folk-leaning megastar teased another more uptempo track, during which Zach Bryan again sings to an ex (“She's got a lover under our old covers / And I don't have the heart to ask her why / Does he know that the bed-frame is aimed at the window sill / So the sun wakes you up from your left side”).

Of course, given the fact that Zach Bryan went through a high-profile split from BFFs podcast co-host, Brianna LaPaglia, in November, a number of followers have been suggesting both of these newly shared unreleased offerings are about their break-up.

However, Bryan is a masterful storyteller, and often steps into the shoes of an unfamiliar, imagined protagonist, so we simply can't know who he penned these new tracks about until he comes out and explains the meaning of the songs himself. Although, it must be said that Bryan has been known to ‘adjust’ the stories behind his tracks of late, as was the case with ’Something in the Orange’ recently.

One thing that does seem to be a little more certain, however, is that Zach Bryan is grinding away at his follow-up album to his lauded 2024 record, The Great American Bar Scene.

In an October interview with Bruce Springsteen for Rolling Stone, Bryan confirmed he had around fourteen songs written for the forthcoming project, but that he was making a point of being more deliberate and less hurried with his process this time around.

With Zach Bryan treating listeners to two new singles, ‘High Road’ and ‘This World's a Giant’ - both of which feature vocals from New York artist, Grumpy - back in November, we're hoping it won't be too long before we get to hear studio versions of these newly uploaded acoustic tracks, ahead of Bryan's brand new album.

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Featured photo by Laura Ord