Cowboy Tears – Oliver Tree

Cowboy Tears’ by Oliver Tree

Musician/full-time “meme”er Oliver Tree has come out of his supposed ‘retirement’ to release his second full-length release, ‘Cowboy Tears’. Oliver traded in his bowl cut and baggy pants for a bleach blonde bowl-cut-mullet, and a cowboy hat. Even if his name does not sound familiar, I am willing to bet you have seen his signature outfit or songs on social media sometime in the past couple of years.

To preface my whole review, I have been a giant fan of Oliver since 2017/2018 with the Alien Boy release. I love his songs so much that it has clouded my review with previous bias. With that out of the way, here we go.

I expected a bit more lyricism and diversity from Oliver’s second album, but it still manages to be insanely catchy, per usual. The weakest links throughout all of Oliver’s discography are the occasional plastic and repetitive choruses, they can get boring for me before the song ends. I will never deny how many catchy melodies this guy has up his sleeve, but sometimes it borders on too predictable.

I absolutely loved his first single ‘Cowboys Don’t Cry’ and I thought the following singles were fairly solid as well, but those are most of the highlights of the record in my opinion. There are some that will be stuck in my head for years to come despite my best efforts, like ‘Cigarettes’, but something about the lyrics and corny antics keeps me from fully getting into ‘Cowboy Tears’ like his previous releases. His classic blend of pop and pop-punk is still on this record with a taste of country twang every once in a while, but the lack of hip-hop influence kind of bummed me out. I think that was just to distance this version of Oliver Tree from the scooter-riding Oliver that we all know so well, but I miss the original Oliver character.

With everything said I feel like a disappointed parent, but I love Oliver and I felt a little let down with this record. A little ironic to say about an artist with a song legitimately called, ‘Let Me Down’. It is not bad by any means, writing about it has made me realize that, but it cannot compare to his debut album, ‘Ugly is Beautiful’. Oliver if you ever see this, drop the cowboy schtick and drop more songs!

7.5/10

Favorites: Cowboys Don’t Cry, Things We Used To Do, Get Well Soon, Cigarettes