Bruiser and Bicycle: Deep Country

"With runtime no longer limited to two sides of a vinyl record, musicians weren't forced to leave bonus tracks on the cutting room floor or debate stuffing songs onto a cassette tape with grainy audio. Naturally, tracklists expanded. That bloat returned in the mid-2010s during the adoption of streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. With digital streams now counting toward Billboard chart rankings, artists started unrolling tracklists like carpet runners in long hallways, inflating their odds of scoring a hit."

"If we're going to go long, then commit to the length by crafting an intricate world or reveling in the journey itself-tasks far easier said than done. Bruiser and Bicycle got the message for Deep Country. While their sophomore album, 2023's Holy Red Wagon, stuck its toe over the hour line by a single minute, their third LP saunters in sound and runtime, clocking in at just shy of 75 minutes."

Compact-disc format removed runtime constraints, allowing artists to include longer tracklists without audio sacrifice. Streaming-era chart rules later incentivized sprawling albums as a tactic to increase hit probability. When lengthy records shift from artistic commitment to system gaming, many hour-plus albums lack cohesive intent. Deep Country's third LP answers the challenge by leaning into extended runtime with purpose, delivering nearly 75 minutes of mellow experimental folk. The band downshifts from prior hyper-energetic prog-pop into relaxed, detail-oriented arrangements. The quartet employs acoustic instruments and vocal techniques to cultivate low-key merrymaking that rewards attentive, slow listening.

Read at Pitchfork